PRINCIPLES OF 
OMEStlC ENGINEERING 

Mary Pattison 





Class TX 

Book. 



^3 



Copyright}^". 



COPYRrCHT DEPOStr. 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC 
ENGINEERING 

OR THE 

WHAT, WHY AND HOW OF A HOME 

AN ATTEMPT 

TO EVOLVE A SOLUTION OF THE DOMESTIC "LABOR AND 
capital" problem TO STANDARDIZE AND PROFESSION- 
ALIZE HOUSEWORK — TO RE-ORGANIZE THE HOME UPON 
"SCIENTIFIC management" PRINCIPLES — AND TO POINT 
OUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC AND PER- 
SONAL ELEMENT THEREIN, AS WELL AS THE PRACTICAL 

BY 

MARY PATTISON 

(Mrs. Frank A.) 
COLONIA, NEW JERSEY 




"Thou shalt make thy house 
The temple of a nation's vows. 
Spirits of a higher strain 
Who sought thee once, shall seek thee again. 
I detected many a god 
Forth already in the road; 
Ancestors of beauty come 
In thy breast to make a home." 

— Emerson. 



This edition consists of five hundred copies ^/t v^ 

of which twenty are reserved for compli- ""^'O 

mentary private distribution by the author 



COPYRIGHT, 1915, BT 

Me3. Frank A. Pattison 



THE TROW PRESS 
NEW YORK 



JUN 10 1915 

'GIA401366 

^ / 



WBITTEN IN THE INTEREST OF 

THE CLUB WOMEN OF NEW JERSEY 

and 

DEDICATED 

TO THE VERY BEST HUSBAND IN THE 
WORLD, WHO HAS THROUGH HIS UNSELFISH 
ATTITUDE AND GENEROUS DISPOSITION 
MADE POSSIBLE THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF 
WHATEVER IS CONTAINED IN THESE PAGES 



PREFACE 

This book Is presented not for Its literary value, but as a 
record and result of the Housekeeping Experiments conducted 
at Colonia. 

It is a sort of report to the public for the public's interest, 
and also a contradiction to the sometimes justifiable criticism 
that the work of Club Women is apt to be dilettante, and their 
plans unmatured. This undertaking was carried on, as designed 
by, for, and with, the Club Women of New Jersey. The 
original intent being, to rouse the thought of the women of the 
State to possibilities of greater housekeeping — returns to purse 
— personality — and public progress, through the introduction 
into the home of modern machines, modern methods, and mod- 
em motives ; the elimination of human and material waste — 
through freedom from mere tradition and social custom — and 
the conservation of time, health, money, and beauty in closer 
domestic co-operation ; as well as the establishment of a Home 
Economic course in the State College, which course is now 
existent. 

The idea was to meet what has been generally termed the 
"Servant Problem." To do this the social and economic — as 
well as the personal — factors concerned in this phase of capital 
and labor have been pointed out, together with the unjust 
results to both sides in our present custom and form of con- 
tract, and the immense profit that will follow in the wake of 
professionalizing — on a business basis — such essential and po- 
tentially high class labor. 

Our hope is to bring the masculine and feminine mind more 
closely together in the industry of home-making, by raising 
housework on the one side to the plane of Scientific Engineer- 
ing; and by proving on the other, fuller individual returns 
for every complete and right domestic activity, to the end that 
the Home may develop progressively more and more as the 
efficient unit of the State. 

The present volume is larger and very different from the 



PREFACE 

booklet report intended in the beginning. It has developed of 
itself, unintentionally, taking this form through unexpected 
University interest. 

An unconventional feature included at the end of the book 
is a list of approved household articles and where to procure 
them. Because these are questions constantly asked, and be- 
cause the author feels that the educational and commercial 
interests should have closer co-operation, she has seen fit to 
include this partial list of Business Houses. 

In no case has any profit accrued to her in so doing, and in 
only two instances have the firms listed known their names 
would appear. 

In conclusion, if there is anything of value within these pages 
suggestive to the present home-maker, or helpful to future 
ones, it is the result of pleasant and profitable hours of research, 
study and test ; and the interested co-operation of other women, 
particularly those of the Club in Colonia, who have been untir- 
ing in their kindly service to the idea — the Conservation of the 
individual Home. 

M. P. 

Colonia, New Jersey. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PART I 
THE PRACTICAL HOME 



FIRST CHAPTER 

WHAT IS A HOME? 

One's purpose, object, or ideal in producing a home — What it is — 
What it should stand for — Its meaning to the family and to each 
member thereof — The difference between home and institution — 
Why the conservation of the private home is worth while — Why not 
live in hotels or blocks of living — The more important, the econom- 
ics of money, or of men and life — The difficulty of mass develop- 
ment — The small group the ideal order Page 29 

SECOND CHAPTER 

general StTRVEY OF THE HOME 

The status of the modern home — A general outlook upon the 
home as it is — The different classes of homes — The points of rela- 
tion between them all — The evolution of the home, and the reason 
for a new conception — Why it is as it is — The practical working 
out of an ideal from present conditions — The results from the large 
number of questionnaires sent out by the Station and upon which the 
work was founded Page 35 

THIRD CHAPTER 

THE BUDGET 

In the practical production of the home, the Budget, or the 
money available, is of prime importance — The value of the Budget 
in establishing standards and educating for the business of pur- 
chasing — Considered as a developer and as a controlling fac- 
tor Page 47 

FOURTH CHAPTER 

THE ELIMINATION OF THE SERVANT CLASS 

Why the Servant Class should be eliminated — The evolution from 
the slave — The Mediaeval form of contract — The old-time "Mem- 

3 



CONTENTS 

ber of the family" sort extinct — Some appalling statistics of the 
present day — The very small percentage of people who keep ser- 
vants — The Specialist — The limitation they put upon the progress 
of the home and the actual scarcity of them in the field — The cost 
of servants — Their degenerating effect upon the family. . .Page 52 

FIFTH CHAPTER 

AN AUTO-OPERATIVE HOUSE 

A simple system of indexing and cataloging that tells the place 
of everything in the house — A simplifying method of self-showing 
to the stranger who would take charge at a moment's notice — A 
great relief to the woman who feels she is indispensable in order 
that the house may be kept running — Periodical housecleaning 
unnecessary — Mutual dependence makes for an order of indepen- 
dence Page 59 

SIXTH CHAPTER 

the business of purchasing 

How to spend — Training in the knowledge of values — The ma- 
terials one should buy and what each purchase means to other 
housekeepers — The shop, the dealer, the trade, and the standard 
of business in the town — Honest labels — Textiles — Proper weights 
and measures — Inspected foods, package goods, cold storage, etc., 
and the conditions in delivery Page 65 

SEVENTH CHAPTER 

THE ROUTE OF MATERIAL 

The route the material takes from the receiving station, or place 
of entrance in the house, to the final use — The storage of each 
class of goods — Their classification and the ease of acces- 
sibility Page 73 

EIGHTH CHAPTER 

THE INSTRUCTION BUREAU 

The housekeeping library — The classification of all household 
instruction, receipts, patterns, designs, plans, etc. — A reservoir of 
perpetual education in all home-making subjects — A convenient way 
of keeping one's self up to date in household matters — A refer- 
ence of the best-known ways — A source of instruction to which 
one adds and takes as occasion suggests Page 80 



CONTENTS 
NINTH CHAPTER 

HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS AND DEVICES 

The result of the Experiment Station's tests in machinery and 
devices of all sorts — Those constructed upon the best principle 
and with standard material — A detailed description of their use, 
care, cost, and profit, and where and how they should be pur- 
chased — Their inter-dependence — The Machine and the Ser- 
vant Page 84 

TENTH CHAPTER 

THE ELIMINATION OF DRUDGERY 

Analysis of the different departments of housework — What is 
Drudgery — Why it should be eliminated — Machine labor gener- 
ally cheaper than hand labor — The difference in the quality of work 
— What sort of work should be done by hand and what by machine 
— Ignorance the only excuse for drudgery Page 96 

ELEVENTH CHAPTER 

TIME AND MOTION STUDY 

What is time and motion study — The three motives in all move- 
ment — Analysis of each piece of work, or operation, into its units 
— The use of a stop watch — The standard time for each task — 
The elimination of waste motions — Examples in the study of units 
— Scraping a plate, cutting bread, etc. — The organization of one's 
surroundings so that the greatest efficiency may result — Planning 
ahead and dispatching — The head and the hand in each task — 
How they should work together — Why they should not work to- 
gether — Records and results of special tasks studied at the Station 
— Preparing vegetables — Getting a breakfast — Washing dishes, 
dusting stairs, washing, ironing, etc Page 103 

TWELFTH CHAPTER 

the regeneration of THE KITCHEN 

Kitchen atmosphere of beauty, health and well-being should 
permeate entire house — not a place to get away from, but to attract 
with charm of hospitality, activity, ease and contentment — A re- 
valuation needed — Fire and civilization — The kitchen stove the pivot 
— Comparative cost of coal, alcohol, gas and electricity — Cost of 
cooking vegetables, meat, etc. — Description of a studio kitchen — A 
Pullman car kitchen — The kitchen at the station — Ugly fixtures 



CONTENTS 

a common difficulty — Cleanliness and beauty — The real meaning 
of the kitchen — Home, fire and food Page 112 

THIRTEENTH CHAPTER 

THE EFFICIENT LAUNDRY 

Laundry work in the home affected by machinery — The scientific 
way to wash — A description of the laundry at the Station, and why 
it was so arranged — Some records in special tasks — Modern pos- 
sibilities in ironing — Comparison with the old way — Co-operative 
laundries — Why a machine should be used by more than one 
family Page 122 

FOURTEENTH CHAPTER 

FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

What one should eat to be strong — Food adulterations — How 
to feed a family — A list of foods worthy one's time in preparation 
— Some simple ways of procuring the required nourishment — The 
danger in denatured foods — "Brown rice" and whole grains — Foods 
in season — Simplicity in preparation — The value of flavor — The 
futility of most "made dishes" — Some successful menus — The im- 
portance of knowing the right temperature for each article to be 
cooked — Easy methods of serving — The use of the fireless cooker 
— Some results in bread making — The three classes of foods — 
An efficiency breakfast — An efficiency luncheon — Fashion in foods 
— Scientific food values Page 1 29 

FIFTEENTH CHAPTER 

SYSTEM IN HOUSEKEEPING 

Definition of System, Principles — from which each must develop 
an individual system — The object of a flexible system — What it 
means to run a house on the efficiency system — Why it is the only 
means of growth — The meaning of the days of the week — The 
psychology of system — The Taylor System — Emerson's twelve 
principles — The value of immediate records — Standards and 
schedules — Planning and dispatching Page 144 

SIXTEENTH CHAPTER 

SKILLED LABOR 

How to supply the demand for skilled labor — The formation of 
a labor corporation in each city, with expert workers for all parts 

6 



CONTENTS 

of housework — Nature of such contracts — Time of service — Com- 
parative cost with old methods — Some results from the Station's 
records — The possibilities of an eight-hour day, etc Page 154« 

SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER 

STANDARDIZATION 

What Standardization means to the home and to one's habit of 
thought — ^A summing up of approved standards throughout the 
home, in conditions, equipment, material, operations and results — 
The education in scientific management — Home standards of Art, 
Philosophy, Science, Business and Religion Page 162 



PART II 
THE PERSONAL HOME 



FIRST CHAPTER 

PERSONAL FREEDOM 

The family exists that the individual members may best develop 
— The value of establishing independence in the very young — All 
phases of personal dependence to be avoided — The dependent wife 
— The independent grandparents — What individual independence 
means in relation to personal freedom — The highest human effi- 
ciency centers in individual independence Page 171 

SECOND CHAPTER 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FAMILY 

The family as the larger order of individual — Its organization 
aroimd an Ideal, or object of common understanding and sympathy 
— The purpose of the home a united ambition — Coming together 
at stated yet informal intervals as a club would meet — The family 
gathering for weekly discussion, and a program — When each 
should be heard, even the youngest — The constitution and by-laws 
simple, but to the point — Such meetings the modern evolution of 
the family prayer-meeting — All fault finding should be reserved for 
the proper time, or presented in writing — Criticism should be in- 



CONTENTS 

vited, even from the youngest — The whole efficiency system as it 
applies here — The wonderful results possible Page 175 

THIRD CHAPTER 

CO-OPERATION IN HOME ACTIVITIES 

As the Efficiency System is better understood in the organ- 
ization of the family, it becomes a co-operative force in main- 
taining the family — The difference between functional and authori- 
tative management — Example in making a bed — Other records from 
the Station — How discipline enters here and makes for self-deter- 
mination and control — The morning housework — Co-operative en- 
tertaining without servants Page 1 80 



FOURTH CHAPTER 

the home and the money problem 

Money not the real solution — Ability the answer in most cases — 
The danger of a money-making ideal, or habit — The virtue in 
ingenuity — Our whole thought of money needs to be reversed — 
The best people depend on their capability, not on their cash — 
The power of public opinion — The personal note — The servant 
problem and the highest bidder — What to do with leisure — Time 
our only concern — The value of labor versus money — The big per- 
sonal result the most important Page 185 

FIFTH CHAPTER 

the cultural value of housework 

The relation of the home to all that is finest in life — The iso- 
lated, detached, and commonplace attitude toward housework the 
cause of drudgery — The thoughtful and efficient worker — The lit- 
erary side of the home — The art side — The historical, psychologi- 
cal, ethical, sociological, etc. — The meaning of culture, and the 
relation of every part of housework to a larger and deeper back- 
ground of understanding than is generally allowed — The appal- 
ling waste through not appreciating this cultural value — Every 
detail should be considered in the light of broad knowledge — The 
necessity for the widest possible perspective — Woman the source 
and sustainer of life, yet knows little generally of natural 
science Page 189 

8 



CONTENTS 
SIXTH CHAPTER 

TRAINING FOR DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

What is meant by Domestic Engineering — How does it resemble 
and how differ from other forms of engineering — The keynote and 
the kind of training required — Self-knowledge the foundation — 
Business training — Mechanics — Manual skill, etc. — The principal 
fault in Woman's education — Cultivated intuition the highest fem- 
inine achievement — A list of subjects that could be made practically 
useful Page 193 

SEVENTH CHAPTER 

THE MEANING OF ROOMS 

Their expression through furnishings, coloring, texture and com- 
position — Their relation to each other, and to the family life — The 
rooms as the mind and feeling of the house — The family the soul, 
and the house itself the outer form, or body — Fashion in furnish- 
ing — The logical way to furnish a house and the right use of a 
room Page 198 

EIGHTH CHAPTER 

DOMESTIC INDEPENDENCE AND HOSPITALITY 

Real hospitality — The Home and the Guest — What is meant by 
Domestic Independence — How it becomes the keynote in home- 
making — No one thing will make for greater progress in the home 
than this feeling of being equal to the situation — The Efficiency 
System in relation to visitors, guests, and entertaining — How to 
help people to look after themselves — The joy in producing one's 
own keep — The value of a Bulletin Board in the home — The in- 
dependent going and coming — The model guest Page 204 

NINTH CHAPTER 

AN "efficiency" DINNER 

Description of one of the efficiency dinners given at the Station — 
from the preparation of each article of food to the final bidding 
of the guests "good night." (This is an example that anyone can 
follow and improve upon.) Page 210 

TENTH CHAPTER 

CHILDREN AND THE EFFICIENCY SYSTEM 

The welfare of children under this system — How they take to 
the idea without question, and become the best kind of students — 

9 



CONTENTS 

The nurse an abomination except in sickness and bodily helpless- 
ness — From the age of three, children should have instructors to 
make them self-reliant, not nurses to make for helplessness — The 
Efficiency Method and the Professional Playmate — The Day Nurs- 
ery as an efficiency institution Page 215 

ELEVENTH CHAPTER 

THE BODY IN MOTION 

The quality of bodily motion — A three-fold motive in every mo- 
tion: (1) Accomplishment. (2) Exhilaration. (3) Beauty — How 
each can be best developed — The possibilities for bodily culture 
in the ordinary household movements — An efficient body, a strong 
body, a beautiful body, the result of housework Page 219 

TWELFTH CHAPTER 

THE BODY AND ITS GARMENTS 

How the present standards in dress have been the result of the 
evolution and consciousness of the body — True standards in fash- 
ion — How one may dress "A la mode" and yet with another mo- 
tive in mind — The influence of dress standards upon children 
— The economics of dress — Individuality — Beauty paramount, 
etc Page 224 

THIRTEENTH CHAPTER 

THE TRAINING AND BEAUTY OF THE HAND 

Individuality and the hand — Its personal expression — The misuse 
of the hand — The proper use — Its quality, texture, and shape a 
matter of cultivation — The importance of proper movements — The 
best manner of using the hand in housework — Its care, color, and 
smoothness — The way to treat it — The cultivated hand a great 
asset — Housework as a hand beautifier Page 229 

FOURTEENTH CHAPTER 

THE FIVE SENSES 

The co-ordination and co-operation of the senses in housework — 
The environment important as it affects the senses — The senses 
the real basis of spirituality — The higher cultivation of taste and 
smell — The value of touch — The sense of sight as an educator — 
Why noises should be avoided Page 2S5 

10 



CONTENTS 
FIFTEENTH CHAPTER 

THE NEED OF BEAUTY IN EVERYDAY LIFE 

Love of beauty a fundamental instinct — Should be given every 
chance for expression — Every intelligent effort should be made to 
push this instinct into its best use — Nothing can reach its maxi- 
mum usefulness until it includes the element of beauty — The stand- 
ards of beauty suggested in the Experiment Station — Color, tone, 
form, proportion, composition and expression — The home the cen- 
ter of the nation's aesthetic progress — The spirit and love of beauty 
as practical essentials in home life Page 240 



PART III 
THE PROGRESSIVE HOME 



FIRST CHAPTER 

THE HOME AND POLITICS 

Nothing in the home that is not affected by politics and the gov- 
ernment, from the building, its inspection, and the standard of the 
material used, to the last article of furniture purchased — From 
the gas, electricity, and water, to the box of matches and the bottle 
of milk — Home-making no longer a private undertaking, but a pub- 
lic function, affected by municipal and state conditions — The school, 
the library, the market, and the roads — The larger housekeeping 
means efficient government, and the best possible talent for public 
office — Food, clothing, and shelter are now political interests ; man's 
duty to provide these — woman's to guarantee their quality — The 
tools and weapons for their protection the obligation of man — The 
preparation for, and education in their use, the function of woman 
— Better homes will produce better citizens and better government 
— Better politics will make for better homes Page 247 

SECOND CHAPTER 

THE HOME AND SOCIETY 

The relation between homes — How the standard of each affects 
the other — All have same fundamental character and same prob- 
lems — The growing home the social unit — The real use of society — 
Fashion: its use and abuse — Society in the small and large circle, 
and the place the home should always hold — The social obliga- 

11 



CONTENTS 

tion in every act — The highest social standards — An efficient soci- 
ety — Our relation to each other the most important thing in 
life Page 251 

THIRD CHAPTER 

EDUCATION AND THE HOME 

The school and the home — The heart or home sense in public 
institutions — The social cell organization a tool — The home — the 
only orderly educational foundation and means of growth for any 
nation — The intimate understanding of each other in work and play 
— Man and woman in the home — To serve the State a duty as well 
as a progressive necessity — Men only half the organism — The State 
needs the completed whole^ as does the home — America must be 
a progressive ideal example for the world — No more virtuous than 
Germany, France, or England except as we make ourselves so — 
Freedom the goal only as freedom is given to others — Intensive 
human cultivation should be the effort — Civilization should be made 
the great concern of every individual citizen — Beginning in the 
home Page 257 

FOURTH CHAPTER 

MUNICIPAL HOUSEKEEPING 

City housekeeping the result of the standard of the imit house- 
keeper — The individual home insufficient unless active in municipal 
housekeeping — The larger businesslike methods are needed for the 
operation of the modern progressive home — City standards the 
result of what the people want — Hospitals, reform schools, jails, 
and charities reduced to a minimum in the efficient city — All these 
a form of waste — The meaning of streets, sewers, bad housing and 
sanitation — The public market, recreation and education — Home and 
city co-operation — The object in a City Beautiful Page 265 

FIFTH CHAPTER 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CONSUMER 

The increasing importance of the home-maker as Consumer — She 
spends 90% of all that is spent for food, shelter, and clothing — 
The necessity of acting together as consumers — Organization of a 
Board of Buyers to co-operate with the local Board of Trade — 
The Housewives' League — The consumer, distributor and producer 
must come together in reducing the cost of living — The psychology 
of buying — The women to blame — Too slow in organization — 

12 



CONTENTS 

Ignorance in food standards — Waste in the manufacture of textiles 
— Comparative strength and wearing quality — The rented home — 
The standards of shops Page 269 

SIXTH CHAPTER 

HEAT, LIGHT, AIR, WATER 

Sunlight and the efficient life — Artificial light in relation to cost 
and eye-sight — The eye and its use — Beauty in illumination — Public 
Stations for heat supply — The Thermostat — The most efficient house 
systems of heating — Required moisture — The over-heated house — 
Unpolluted air — The smoke and dust nuisance — Their cost and dan- 
ger to health — Air and the perfect man — Public water supply — Its 
effect upon the home operations — The value of baths, public and 
private Page 274! 

SEVENTH CHAPTER 

EXTERMINATION OF THE FLY AND MOSQUITO 

(Used as a basis of Sanitation) 

Extermination of the fly and mosquito a hygienic necessity — 
Lessons from Panama — The habits of mosquitoes — Their local breed- 
ing places — The Board of Health and the public demand — No neces- 
sity for mosquitoes anywhere — Their effect upon children and 
animals, and upon outdoor life generally — These things a home 
menace with no excuse for being except ignorance — Cost of elimina- 
tion slight — Co-operation and education essential Page 279 

EIGHTH CHAPTER 

A HOME MUNICIPAL LABORATORY 

There should be a testing place for foods, and household equip- 
ment, that the honest efficient business man may be encouraged to 
higher standards, and the dishonest fake not allowed to be a public 
menace — Education should not stop at the High School — There 
should be a consultation place for grown-ups in how to spend, and 
how to live, for health and bank protection — Something like the 
Experiment Station on a larger scale should be a part of every 
municipality, with as little red tape as possible and as much reliable 
information — Women should control such a laboratory. . .Page 283 

13 



CONTENTS 
NINTH CHAPTER 

MORAL STANDARDS 

Public and private moral standards — An accepted policy at the 
Station — The efficiency method the result of practical working 
morality — Housework and its moral — The morality of hospitality 
and sociability — Children and the new moral policy — Moral educa- 
tion and moral practice — The Square Deal of Efficiency. .Page 287 

TENTH CHAPTER 

LOVE AND HOME 

Love and Common Sense — Love and Personality — The power to 
love found in everyone — Systematic training of love nature — The 
development of personal interest — Love the greatest motive power 
in the world — Universal passion for expression of self — The State 
and Efficiency in vocation — The discipline of the unpleasant — In- 
sight and understanding — Love and the home — Housework and per- 
sonal temperament — Love for a great Cause — Love Moods — The 
Maternal, or feminine emotion in public life Page 293 

ELEVENTH CHAPTER 

HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY 

The home the miniature world — The new democracy — The value 
of work — The lower task — The higher tasks — The middle tasks — 
The Scientific task — The relation of home-makers — Of house- 
keepers — Of house workers — Productivity — The efficient and pro- 
gressive democracy — Housework and the new progressive ideal- 
ism Page 298 



14 



FOREWORDS 

Philadelphia. 

About one hundred years ago began the movement which 
transferred machinery from the home to the factory. Up to 
that time practically all spinning, weaving, garment making 
and a large part of all the world's manufacturing was done 
in the workman's home ; and the wife and daughters (when they 
were not engaged in the drudgery of housework) spent the 
greater part of their time at the spinning wheel, the loom, or 
in needlework. 

The transfer of machinery from the home to the factory 
marked an epoch in the progress of women. It shortened the 
hours of labor and gave them at least a small opportunity for 
reading, study and social enjoyment. 

Little did they dream, however, that a similar blessing was 
to be conferred upon their great-granddaughters through the 
return of machinery to the household. 

The work of Mrs. Pattison marks the beginning of this 
era in women's progress. The hours of labor are again to be 
shortened; and, strangely enough, her advancement this time 
will be due to the newer and higher application of the primi- 
tive tool. 

Now, however, it comes as her servant, while in the old days 
it was her master. 

Already the efficiency movement has begun to lighten the 
burden of a considerable portion of our activities. 

Mrs. Pattison's work, however, extends this movement to by 
far the largest field which has yet been touched. 

In her book she has shown us that through the introduction 
of labor-saving machinery into the home it is possible to dimin- 
ish household work by one-half, and conserve one's self in the 
effort. And when we realize that in 90 per cent, of the families 
of this country the mother and daughters are doing all of their 
work without the aid of a servant, we begin to appreciate what 
a blessing Mrs. Pattison is conferring upon women through 

15 



FOREWORDS 

presenting the results of her investigations and her experi- 
ments. 

Bringing these experiments to a successful issue has called 
for unusual qualities. 

Patience, perseverance and mechanical judgment of a high 
order are required to install and try out all sorts of apparatus 
in a house ; and to finally select the best appliance for each 
purpose. 

Only by using and discarding machine after machine is it 
possible to find the one best suited to perform each function; 
and this selection involves a large expenditure of money. 

Plenty of people could be found who would be willing to 
spend their money freelj' in this cause. Few women, however, 
with ample means to employ servants would, for the sake of 
their poorer sisters and society, choose to do all of their own 
housework through a term of years and spend in experiments 
money which might have been used in increasing their personal 
comfort. 

We are accustomed to associate the use of machinery with 
the matter-of-fact side of life. As eminent an authority as 
Ruskin has taught us that its presence acts as a blight to all 
of our artistic instincts. 

It may, therefore, be a question in the minds of many whether 
its daily use might not tend to diminish the interest of the 
wife in the aesthetic side of her surroundings ; cause her to 
neglect her personal appearance and to care less for the deli- 
cate and dainty things of life — the distinctly feminine things 
that give a home its greatest attraction. 

If this were true then the introduction of machinery in the 
household might indeed prove to be a doubtful blessing. 

Mrs. Pattison is a living proof that this fact would seem 
to be ungrounded. She is a woman with artistic instincts and 
fine discrimination, and in spite of doing all of her own house- 
work, — experimenting with the whole field of domestic machinery 
and writing her book, she has found time to select the very 
choicest from among the various homely styles that have been 
imposed upon us during the past few years ; and through 
her good taste and originality has brought about her the 

16 



FOREWORDS 

best of refinement, and has always been well and artistically 
dressed. 

Mrs. Pattison is publishing, so far as I know, the first work 
in the field of household or domestic engineering; and if this 
be true, in a smaller way perhaps she is doing a pioneer work 
similar to that of Leonardo da Vinci in his "II Codice Atlan- 
tico," Newton in his "Principia," and Darwin in his "Origin of 
Species." 

This association of Mrs. Pattison's name with the greatest of 
the past may cause some of the readers of this book to smile; 
but I am not sure that this new branch of engineering is not 
destined to do almost as much for mankind as the work of either 
of these great men has accomplished. 

It is no small achievement to be a pioneer in a movement to 
lighten the burdens of many millions of people. 




17 



FOREWORDS 



Teachers College, 
Columbia University. 

The whole modern period in which we live may be summed up 
in the relations of the home and the machine. The industrial 
revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries meant the 
transfer of industrial processes from the home to the factory 
so far as the production of goods for an outside market was 
concerned. Some production for immediate consumption within 
the family did not, however, yield itself to machine methods but 
remained within the home. Progress for the home to-day as 
far as housework is concerned is to be accomplished either by 
transferring housework outside the home to the machine, or 
by bringing the machine to the work left within the house. 
As a matter of fact progress will be ultimately secured along 
both lines. 

All that part of housework which can be transferred outside 
the house without destroying the home as a center of the per- 
sonal life of the family group — and that we are seeing con- 
cerns the adults as much as the children — is bound in time to be 
organized in large industrial units. The laundry, for example, 
may better be done in a sanitary factory, with specialized work- 
ers, to be employed for an eight-hour day soon, let us hope. 
There is an irreducible minimum, however, of work which must 
stay within the home — the care of the house itself and its fur- 
nishings, the immediate preparation of food and the family 
table, the care of the child, — these things in the nature of the 
case cannot go outside the home, and the last word in prog- 
ress is to bring the machine in. There is a wider field of work 
which as a practical matter will remain within the home, espe- 
cially within the detached house at least, — the laundering of tex- 
tiles in part probably, the care of clothing, the domestic food 
processes as we know them — all these seem likely to remain 
within the house for some time to come, partly for personal and 
historical reasons, but even more for economic reasons which 
make it imperative that the housewife add to family income by 
productive work at home just as the husband's labor produces 

18 



FOREWORDS 

money income outside. The wife is needed at home for its per- 
sonal control ; she must add to family income ; she can do it 
only by retaining certain household arts within the home, al- 
though gradually other methods of income-producing may open 
to the married woman. For the present, however, for many 
household activities progress must come through the adoption 
of machinery within the home. 

What the farther future has for the home, one may not know. 
But the growing emphasis upon its personal values may lead 
one to prophesy the ultimate transfer to factories of all house- 
work save that concerned with the care of persons and personal 
property, with the service of the family table furnished increas- 
ingly from outside kitchens, and with the care and direction of 
child life and the family group. 

Now the person who will experiment with the problem of 
adapting machinery to the economical performance of work 
within the house is solving one-half our puzzling domestic situ- 
ation. And the person who develops methods of handling the 
work of the house transferred to outside industry is solving the 
other half. In either case it is to domestic engineering, whether 
small or large, that we must look, and to the anticipated schools 
of household technology. A degree course leading toward the 
profession of "domestic engineer" was proposed, indeed, some 
years ago by one of our schools of technology. 

It is just that which our colleges must give us, not a course 
with some specialization in household science, but schools for the 
household technician, and engineer, a professional worker who 
will specialize in the field of household engineering with the 
same thoroughness, the same intensity, the same singleness of 
aim as mark the preparation of the marine engineer, the elec- 
trical engineer, the chemical engineer, or any of the other spe- 
cialized engineering professions which have developed for men 
in the last two generations. It is just at this point that one 
may find fault with the higher education of women, even in its 
present specialized form of home economics. It has given us 
150 colleges with departments of domestic science, household 
arts and home economics — all of which are well and good. But 
no one institution has yet gone to the full limit of the possi- 

19 



FOREWORDS 

billties and given us a university school of household engineer- 
ing for women and for men too. It is this that the next ten 
years must furnish if the problems of the household are to be 
intelligently solved. It is because this book points in that direc- 
tion and emphasizes what seems to me one great need in edu- 
cation for the home that I welcome it so heartily. It is note- 
worthy too as a significant piece of evidence arising from the 
women's clubs, an organization whose wise efforts for social 
betterment have not yet been fully appreciated by the public 
and whose possibilities have not yet been one-half realized by 
its own members. 



r^sa.A/w|< 



20 



FOREWORDS 



New York. 

The home is the place where the parents rear the young. 
The place of solitary residence may be a lair, or a roost. A 
man's club may often be a splendid roost, his office may be a 
splendid lair, but neither are homes ; hotels are roosts for man 
and wife, but they are not homes. 

It is woman's instinct to create a home. On the western 
prairies we could tell as far as we could see whether we were 
approaching the solitary and degenerate roost of the bachelor, 
or the incipient home, however elementary and humble, created 
by the maid, widow, or married woman. 

A destructive hostile struggle, whether on playground, on 
the battle-field, in love or in business, the tearing down of the 
old that the new might grow, only in turn to be uprooted, has 
always been man's instinct and delight, so the constructive up- 
building of the chaotic into order and organization has always 
been woman's instinct. 

But above both man and woman there is one law that applies 
equally to all man's activities and all woman's activities, whether 
individual or collective, and that therefore applies particulai'ly 
to the upbuilding of the home. 

There are four supreme and universal rules : 

(1) Obtain from each unit, whether worker, material, 

equipment, or money, a reasonable maximum of re- 
sult. 

(2) Standardize the cost of maintenance and operation 

and then attain the standards. 

(3) Use only those units best fitted for the purpose. 

(4) Beware of increasing capital charges by discarding 

unfit units before they are worn out. 

And when it comes to collective work woman should be far 
more ready than man to recognize that even as the apple- 
blossom is still in all its delicacy and beauty, visible in the thin 
cross section of the ripe apple, so also all sound human organiza- 

21 



FOREWORDS 

tion is but the fruiting of the bud that we find in the organ- 
ization of the human body. 

Every great principle is plainly revealed. Omit one and 
any human organization is weakened, add any principle, not 
in the body, and we are overloading the runner in the race. 

The body reveals the principles: 

(1) Of permanent and oneness of will, divided into the 

conscious and the subconscious. 

(2) Of staff and line, the staff of maintenance and repair, 

the heart, the lungs, the digestive organs, the staff 
of counsel and warning, the five senses ; the mus- 
cular line, the hands and feet, the mouth, that 
execute. 

(3) The staff of maintenance works continuously long 

hours at low pressure, at least half the time rest- 
ing and needs assistance from the will, but few 
directions. The workers in this staff should de- 
velop great strength, not strenuousness. We 
should breathe deeply, the heart beat should be 
strong, the digestion powerful. 

(4) The staff of counsel never pays attention to the com- 

mon place, it reports instantly to the conscious 
will whatever is exceptional, the glaring light or the 
great darkness, the sudden noise or the oppressive 
stillness, the pleasant or the horrid taste or smell. 

(5) The line workers must be strenuous. Not continuous 

workers like the workers in the maintenance staff, 
not alert sentinels like the workers in the counsel- 
ing staff, but intensive workers when work is to be 
done. 

(6) Finally in the human organization as in the human 

body, every worker is peculiarly and exclusively 
fitted for its own duties. The hands with their 
own brain matter in the finger tips may be com- 
petent in a hundred directions, but they never con- 



FOREWORDS 

sider themselves qualified to take the place of feet 
and of mouth, of heart and of lungs, of eyes and 
of ears. 

Using the fundamental of organization, applying under a few 
easily grasped headings all the experiences of the past and 
present — ■ 

Inherited and progressive morality, 

Inherited and progressive knowledge. 

Inherited and progressive accumulation of wealth. 

Using the four business rules as to the control of each 
unit, each reader will be prepared to apply the wealth of knowl- 
edge, suggestions, and instructions contained in this modern sci- 
entific work in the home. 

The one great gift each has is the number of hours between 
birth and death. What shall fill into those hours? One-third 
are obliterated in sleep, another third in work, is the remaining 
third frittered away? Or by the counsel which this book gives 
shall twice the effective results be obtained from the eight hours 
of work, shall incalculably more be obtained from the eight 
hours now wasted by the ten thousand, only utilized by the ten 
who lead the world; eight hours even if taken in fractions of a 
minute as the lungs take their rest? 



\j^{rZZ^^i^^t^^n,^ L<rLA^ 



23 



FOREWORDS 



Boston. 

The ultimate aim of the World-soul seems to be, according to 
Emerson, "Homes of virtue, sense, and taste." The progress 
of thought in our country seems recorded in that single line. 

Homes of virtue was certainly the ideal of Pilgrim and Puri- 
tan. Stalwart and incorruptible men and women came from 
those early homes, where "sense" in sanitation and matters of 
convenience and comfort, at least, was rare, and where "taste" 
was dormant. 

Homes of sense was the ideal of the nineteenth century. Ade- 
quate water supply, a heating system, bath rooms, ventilation, 
a sanitary and well-equipped kitchen, and labor-saving devices 
of all kinds, came in to make the typical home in the United 
States more enjoyable, from the merely physical point of 
view, than the homes of the Kings and Queens of bygone years. 

Homes of taste is the ideal of the twentieth century. And 
taste is coming to be interpreted in the broadest possible sense, 
the sense in which the Greek understood it, "Nothing too 
much," plus the sense in which the Christian understands it, 
"everything done decently and in order." 

Ultimately virtue, sense, and taste, in our homes, will be held 
in just balance. To hasten that day is the aim of this book, a 
pioneer in its field, — a field that has its center wherever a father, 
a mother, and a child live together. The home is the very 
heart of civilization. Out of that heart are the issues of life. 




24 



PART I 
THE PRACTICAL HOME 



"But what idea predominates in our houses? Thrift first, 
then convenience and pleasure. Take off all the roofs, froTn 
street to street, and we shall seldom find the temple of any higher 
god than Prudence. The progress of domestic living has been 
in cleanliness, in ventilation, in health, in decorum, in countless 
means and arts of comfort, in the concentration of all the util- 
ities of every clime in each house. They are arranged for low 
benefits. The houses of the rich are confectioners^ shops where 
we get sweetmeats and wine: the houses of the poor are imita- 
tions of these to the extent of their ability. With these ends 
housekeeping is not beautiful; it cheers and raises neither the 
husband, the wife, nor the child, neither the host nor the guest: 
it oppresses women." — Emerson. 



I 



CHAPTER I 



WHAT IS A home; 



"The Heart of Home will hum forever, for Nature feeds the fire " 

One of the most important contributions of Scientific Man- 
agement to the Industrial world — beside the practical plan for 
the co-operation of capital and labor, — is its insistence that the 
all-essential element of every endeavor is the Ideal, or object of 
such activity. This fundamental purpose it declares should 
be clearly understood and constantly in the minds of all who 
share in the effort of production. In other words: Have a 
standard of excellence before beginning work, a positive direc- 
tion in which all interest tends. This does not mean the con- 
clusion will be merely the cut and dried result of a pattern, at 
the expense of the growing imagination of the workman, but 
it does mean that certain principles pertaining to the thing 
in hand, must be thoroughly comprehended ; the effect or result 
desired definitely imaged, and the process carefully studied in 
every detail. For instance, let us take two ways of making a 
dress. The one, where the work is all mechanical, with no par- 
ticular understanding as to the relation of the seams and "lines" 
to the human form in general, and none to the one in particular 
for whom the garment is intended. The work proceeds in parts, 
probably from pattern suggestions, that even if perfect in them- 
selves, fail in developing either the best talent of the individ- 
ual worker, or in bringing out the personal charms of the wearer, 
because of there being no clear perception of the unity of those 
parts, in relation to the object for which they are intended, 
or any developed sense of the highest expression of which they 
are capable. The other way is to consider well at the start, the 
composition of dress in general, its significance, why certain 
colors, textures, and designs suggest certain people, the occa- 
sions and the personality for which the particular dress is 

29 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

desired, and the utmost that can be done with the material 
at hand. As the work proceeds there will be constant improve- 
ment upon the original thought, and the dress and the worker 
will grow under the operation. The difference being that in 
the latter, all the study possible wiU be put upon the idea, or 
object of the dress, before it is begun ; its relation to every phase 
of use for which it is intended, and the practice in the kind of 
technique needed to perfect each part that they may properly 
fit together to produce the one "Creation" best adapted to the 
person and the occasion for which the garment is designed. 
This method requires more thought and headwork, but there is 
less waste and fewer failures, and beside it is a developing proc- 
ess for everyone engaged in carrying out the plan. 

If we would follow this principle of Scientific Management in 
our study of home-making, we must ask ourselves at the outset 
— What is a Home.'* And while realizing the difiiculty of 
trying to put into words the real and spiritual thing for 
which the home stands, we must do our utmost to define its 
meaning and purpose, in order to have a common understand- 
ing of the object for which we are all striving, and a particu- 
lar sense of each one's personal problem in the field. There- 
fore, in applying Scientific Management to the subject, we must 
commence by trying to determine just what is the nature and 
aim of a home. We know it is not necessarily a house, for 
there are people who constantly prove the truth of the say- 
ing: "Home is where my shoes are." Again, it is not always 
necessary to think of it as a place, for really home is a condi- 
tion, or state of feeling. One feels at home, or not at home, 
according to one's surroundings. It is therefore something 
more than any house, or fixed abiding place could suggest. 
In short, if its meaning had to be put into three words, would 
they not be — Home is Atmosphere.? Or a longer and more 
workable definition for our purpose might be, that a home is 
the constant production of an atmosphere, or state of organ- 
ized existence for the purpose of providing proper shelter, 
comfort, nourishment, and encouragement for the development 
of each individual member. A re-creation center, fertilized by 
the heart and mind of all within, and ever pregnant with life's 

30 



WHAT IS A HOME? 

best joys. This would not only give us a common standard of 
production, but a general direction toward which effort and 
organization should tend, and a definite basis upon which to 
estimate the results in a larger life and more wholesome happi- 
ness for everyone concerned. 

A home is not only a shelter from cold and wind and rain, but 
from the world's outside hostilities, fears, doubts, and divi- 
sions. It offers peace and rest to the returning worker, a cosy 
chair, a hearth, and a feeling that all is well because this cher- 
ished spot exists, wherein retirement is possible and refresh- 
ment at hand. 'Tis, 

"Love makes home a gracious court. 
There, let the world's rude hasty ways 
Be fashioned to a loftier port." 

Its nourishment is more than meat, for the mind and soul of 
man must feed, and a home that is not a place where the soul 
restores itself, and the heart finds new aspiration, is something 
less than the name implies. How often do we "perish the 
thought" of one of the members of the family, rather than 
"nourish" it to better being.'' Discouragement has killed more 
of our good people than war, pestilence, and famine. The 
very few who have fought and won the battle through applied 
discouragement, would probably have reached earlier and greater 
heights if inspired by the right sort of healthy and definite 
encouragement. It might almost be well to lay it down as a 
moral rule in every family — Discourage one another not hy 
word, or look, but rather encourage ever to a better way. 

With this meaning of home in mind, it should be clearly the 
business of each member of the household to help to produce 
the most constructive and inspiring atmosphere possible. Each 
home should exist around an idea standing as a vitalizing influ- 
ence for self-expression, not only of each member of the fam- 
ily in each effort of the day, but of the family as a unit, and its 
individual and encouraging relation to the community. The 
real home would make of the town an environment of shelter, 
comfort, nourishment, and encouragement, but that blessed 

31 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

stage of society has not j'et been reached where more than a 
few people can live intimately and harmoniously for any length 
of time under the same roof, and so we turn to the family unit 
in order to mass the domestic forces and demonstrate the high- 
est order of human relationship in the State. 

We believe no more advanced scheme of civilization has been 
conceived, than the small group of father, mother, and child, or 
children, and this it is that makes the ideal home, but it should 
be a home of the family, for the family, and by the family, 
and not either made by the mother, or ordered by the father, 
but rather, a co-operative enterprise in which the importance 
of the individual is suprem.e. Herein is the marked difference 
between the private home and the public institution. The for- 
mer gives freedom to the individual and the motive; the latter 
is opposed to individualism, giving authority to a pledge, or 
order. Personal freedom is one of the greatest gifts of home 
life, and this cannot rightly be realized unless each member of 
the household feels a responsibility to take an active and con- 
structive part in the psychic, as well as the physical creation 
of that home from day to day. Even in the small and model 
group, we find it no easy task to make a unit of the usual vari- 
ety of tastes, talents, and temperaments therein, so that each 
is allowed free and wise development after its kind; how much 
more difficult it then becomes to put together in any advancing 
method of home living, a large and heterogeneous mass of 
human beings. Any such plan must straightway lose its home 
sense and the great values that are the result of the right sort 
of private and domestic life, and become a public association, 
useful in its way, but utterly lacking in those elements of the 
highest order that are found only in the living, sympathetic, 
and helpful companionship of the few who are living, working, 
and hoping in what might be called a close corporation of 
home-making. Were it not for the great values that accrue 
only from the monogamic order of relationship that are too 
wonderful and spiritual to even try to list here, the making of 
separate homes would be a most foolish business enterprise, — 
for, from a money or ease of operation standpoint, it proves 
itself an extravagance at every turn. We might better live in 

32 



WHAT IS A HOME? 

hotels, or blocks, with one source of supply, one management, one 
method, but human nature and life itself is so vastly more 
important than any mere money consideration, that we, fortu- 
nately, in this age of the dollar standard, instinctively cling to 
the way the Creator seems to have determined man should live, 
that he may be best prepared to move on to greater heights 
of existence. The home means to most people a happier kind 
of living than has so far been proved possible by any larger 
combination. The private, individual, and congenial home 
without doubt, develops not only the highest kind of human 
being in civilization, but the most real and permanent happi- 
ness and prosperity. It is therefore, in truth, the cornerstone 
and foundation of the nation, the cradle of the citizen, and the 
bulwark and stability of society, and should be the dearest place 
in the world for the man and woman together, and the best 
place for each alone ; the choicest spot for the children to 
assemble, and the magnet they carry abroad; the most loved 
corner of creation in which each may find his own, and where 
all feel at One with Life. But how often the practical living 
conditions are anything but ideal for such united and enlight- 
ened effort, the trouble showing itself generally in the atti- 
tude and motive of the individual, rather than in any fixed and 
determined obstacles. 

To be sure there are serious and distracting problems to 
meet. Death, sickness, poverty, discord, and ignorance are facts 
knocking at the door of most of us, and yet these and like 
tragedies may be overcome by health, sympathetic understand- 
ing, and a working knowledge. All of which are to be had for 
right asking. 

Perhaps the two really serious problems of the practical 
home are centered in the complexity and luxury of modem con- 
ventions, and the difficulties involved in and about the domestic 
labor problem. The first is a matter of external demands, and 
may be solved through individual choice and independence. The 
last Is a bugaboo that has loomed up too conspicuously in the 
foreground of home values, for in the balance of truth, the home 
and its spiritual content rise far aloft of dependence and rou- 
tine, and the servant, so called, becomes a mere accessory, a 

33 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

part of the complexity, a factor of the times. Not a sympa- 
thetic, organic, intelligent and essential element of the re- 
creation center, from the beginning to the end, — an enduring 
virtue, — but, rather a hindering check upon present potential- 
ities, a misguided factor, and an unorganized unit, making for 
much of the discomfort and nervous tension under which many 
a home is operated. For the servant who has in her power the 
every detail of a house, is commander over the family atmos- 
phere as well. 

Can a people, then, arriving at this realization and convic- 
tion, allow anything so trivial, so temporary, so partial, as 
that thing we call 'the Servant problem" to thus poise itself 
in the foreground as to dissipate our thought from the most 
vital issues and needs of home life, and thereby disintegrate 
the most sacred and useful institution of progress that God has 
revealed to human heart and human understanding.'* 

No, we say — a hundred times no; for there is a practical 
answer. It merely needs intelligent and general application, 
for which it becomes the Cause and duty of every thinking man 
and woman to patiently study the situation that confronts us 
in present domestic life, and to do the utmost to build up an 
effective "Efficiency System" that will not only be a solution for 
the servant problem, so called, but a method of deliberate and 
scientific action for the creation of the kind of atmosphere that 
will best conserve the Home and all that it means. 



34 



CHAPTER II 

GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HOME 

"The man is the measure of his home" 

The homes of the world may be divided into three general 
classes. Those made solely with an attitude of hard and sheer 
necessity, the don't-care kind, just places in which to sleep and 
eat, where the poorest and most unholy atmosphere abides, and 
where life and its consciousness rises no higher than mere ani- 
mal existence of the lower sort. The get-and-devour-what-you- 
can standard, which class in truth is not necessarily the hovel, 
or poor man's hut, but extends on up through many higher 
priced mansions and incomes. There are those again includ- 
ing a very large class of homes made by the instinctive home- 
maker: the feminine and natural desire to have a nest of one's 
own, but too often without the bird's knowledge of just how 
to proceed, the result being that there is frequently an air of 
confusion, bad management, and disproportion generally, 
where the longing of the very makers themselves to get away 
from it all, is an everyday happening, and the belief that there 
is any better way is sadly lacking. 

The third class, while acknowledging the necessity of a place 
to eat and sleep, and having the instinct to try to make that 
place a suitable one, is a home founded upon the understanding 
of a higher meaning in it all, and stands ready to improve upon 
itself by any measures that seem practical. This last is the 
class of home to which this book is directed. The Class for which 
the Experiment Station in Colonia was founded. The Class 
in which the hope of the present rests and the salvation of the 
future is assured. Not necessarily a moneyed class, but one 
in which proper training, culture, and a broad-minded attitude 
make higher perception possible and intelligent effort inter- 
esting. Such a home may have the very minimum to spend, 
but it is getting somewhere with each day. It is neither nar- 

35 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HOME 

row, nor trivial. Surveying the subject in this way a very close 
relationship is clearly apparent between all homes, for it is but a 
step between the must be, the would be, and the want to be, home. 
A step that has been perhaps hard to take because of our tra- 
ditional feeling that the last word has been said in home-making, 
and that after all, housework must rest on the drudgery and 
overwork of somebody. On the Servants, if one is fortunate 
enough to have any. If not, on Mother, if she be able, or upon 
the most willing one of the family. From this point of view 
there has been little incentive to perform any more domestic 
labor than was forced by necessity. Science, art, education, 
and business took themselves off to more public and propitious 
fields, and the home was left to the women and the servants. 
But as man cannot make a complete success of public life without 
the help of woman, so woman fails even in home-making without 
the help of man and all that he represents. It seemed all very 
well as long as he provided her with plenty of slaves to carry 
out her wishes, and economic conditions demanded that she 
keep herself in the knowledge of how to perform all the house- 
hold tasks, for no near source of supply was hers, and very 
often the closest neighbor was fully a mile away, but when 
the presence of such necessity was lessened, the subject of house- 
work became largely the duty and obligation of the servants, 
who naturally were not of the educated classes and had no 
realization of the scientific, or professional possibilities of their 
occupation. Hence, there was not only little advance made in 
the home arts compared with those outside the home, but the 
world began to hypnotize itself to the belief that education, 
culture, and refinement generally, could only be had by ridding 
one's self of the performance of anything that was declared 
to be in the nature of menial labor. "The higher life" must 
necessarily be found only in those things that were above sub- 
jects akin to housework. As one woman authoress declared sig- 
nificantly : "I do all my work, but I never think of what I am 
doing. I always have my mind on higher things." 

All this is the inevitable result of not only the division of 
labor in society and the isolation of related subjects, but the 
separation of the sexes. In the beginning, men and women 

36 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HOME 

worked side by side, accomplished each task to the best of their 
united ability, and used every means known to improve upon 
their first crude efforts. In our earliest records of primitive 
life, man with his weapon, and woman carrying the child on her 
back, are found working together, with no division of labor save 
that while she is tearing apart and distributing the meat, he is 
watching and protecting the group from wild beasts. They 
both felled the trees, cut the stone, brought the food, and 
guarded the family. With the introduction of fire, there came 
a change. Somebody had to watch the flame, and so it became 
the all-important object of the woman's life to see to it that 
the spark was never extinguished. This then was the chief 
cause of her indoor and isolated life, and not as is often 
supposed, the nursing of the child, for even from the earliest 
age there were various contrivances made whereby she could 
wander abroad, work in the field, build walls, carry stone, or 
even hunt, with her baby ingeniously strapped to her person. 
It was the fire that revolutionized her mode of life and drew her 
from the side of man and his pursuits, into retirement and sepa- 
rated industries. Man, on the other hand, went his way alone, to 
conquer and to kill, to explore and fight, to clear the forests, and 
to study the elements, while woman remained near the home 
"keeping" the fire and preparing the food. Thus she became the 
founder and developer of society, religion, and agriculture, and 
the originator and inventor of nearly all the industrial arts, pot- 
ter, weaver, skin dresser, linguist, artist, and doctor. The"beast- 
of-burden" and the "Jack-of-all-trades." His portion it was 
to bring back the spoils ; hers to conserve and elaborate the 
results of the victory. This has been the inheritance of to- 
day, the real inheritance of the home. 

With the introduction of steam, the second great change 
took place in the life of the home. The native occupations left 
the hearth, and the factory world came into being. While this 
great transition did much to weaken the deftness and ability 
of the hand, it brought with it time and opportunity for the 
development of the head, and the results of university train- 
ing together with a more advanced system of public education, 
have paved the way for the third great stage in home-making, 

37 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

which is the introduction of gas and electricity, and the applica- 
tion of science to every-day needs, and while it is still a matter of 
fire, or heat, it is no longer essential that the heat be con- 
stantly watched. Here, therefore, upon this central fact, begin- 
neth the description of the accomplishments and possibilities 
of a modem home, standardized upon scientific lines, created 
from day to day upon art principles, having a high educa- 
tional value at every point of contact, and proving itself a 
business proposition by virtue of its ever growing list of assets, 
and its increasing rate of interest always forthcoming and pay- 
able for every effort put into the plan. 

Not long since, the Federation of Women's Clubs in New 
Jersey, determined to discover, if possible, why so many of 
its members were unable to take active part in the civic, social, 
and other branches of that association. Even when well quali- 
fied to do so, and with apparently a strong desire to help, 
there would nevertheless come the reply: "But it is impos- 
sible, for I have neither strength, energy, nor money to do 
anything more than my home obliges me now to do. I never 
know whether I am going to be left without a maid, or not, and 
my husband does not approve of my becoming involved in any- 
thing further." If not just these words, something very like 
them was the all too frequent response. It roused our curios- 
ity; what was the matter? This, together with the fact that 
the Home Economics Department was the one least popular 
of all the Committees, made the fact stand forth that the home 
and its ill-advised conditions was the cause of the inability of 
women to organize for more efficient club life. What was to 
be done? Clearly it was determined we must find a remedy. 
To this end several thousand questionnaires were sent to the 
women throughout the State, in the form of a simple survey, 
that would best help us in a right way to proceed. Although 
it is not possible to report in detail the many and interesting 
returns from these questionnaires, the very large majority were 
from women who seemed to have more or less sense of the im- 
portance of doing something to solve the home and servant 
problem, but very little hope or faith that any practical remedy 
or solution could be found for a condition or a class of people, 

38 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HOME 

the status of which they conceived to be not only indispensable to 
the survival of the family and the race, but an economic neces- 
sity in society, and sentimentally futile to try to change. That 
condition was embodied in the three brief, but generally ac- 
cepted statements: 

1st. "Woman's place is in the home." 
2d. "Woman's work is never done." 
3d. "Housework is drudgery." 

We will agree to the first, provided we be allowed to use our 
sense of vision from the latest device and invention of man, — the 
airship — and declare from a height that the Earth is our home. 
The answers to the other two, is the reason of this book, wherein 
we hope to show that even if one's work is never done, it may 
with proper appreciation and encouragement become one's play, 
one's profit, and one's choice, and as to drudgery, that concep- 
tion merely exists from ignorance as to point of view, and is 
not a necessary reality. 

As typical of the many hundred replies received by the Sta- 
tion at the beginning of its work, the following sample is given 
illustrating the very large class of hopeless, patient, conscien- 
tious women who, because they love their husbands and children, 
are striving to do their "duty," even though it be on a mis- 
taken basis that housekeeping is home-making. 

Twelve of the questions were directed more or less toward 
the personal attitude, twelve toward practical methods, and 
eight toward those things largely affected by custom and the 
traditions of society, but all were for the purpose of finding 
out where the woman actually stood in relation to her own 
domain, and from the result of these findings we would pro- 
ceed to systematically search the scientific, the commercial, and 
the art world for such means of help and enlightenment as could 
be made to serve domestic life. 

The following questionnaire, dated June 1, 1911, was from 
a good club member in one of our smaller cities: 

What is your most serious housekeeping problem.'' 
Ans. How to meet expenses. 

39 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

On what basis have you built best results, ideal and practical? 

Ans. Self-sacrifice and strict economy. 

What do you consider the most important problem to be 
solved in the home? 

Ans. How to accomplish all that is expected of one. 

Toward what end does your greatest effort tend? For what 
are you living? 

Ans. To do my best for my husband and children. To make 
them happy. 

What is the greatest thing you have discovered in relation to 
home management? 

Ans. To get up early. Have the children do their part, 
and be systematic in the routine of the work. 

What do you believe the Housekeeping Station should prove 
through its labors to the club women of the State ? 

Ans. It should help solve the servant problem, and show how 
to cut down the cost of living. 

What mode of living is the most economical? 

Ans. I don't know, but think that simple country house with 
the least help possible. 

What is your greatest waste? 

Ans. There is no waste in my home, except perhaps a little 
bit of gas. 

What is the most valuable housekeeping device you have and 
what do you want? 

Ans. Gas stove. Want vacuum cleaner. 

What has been the chief hindrance in your housekeeping? 

Ans. Lack of proper service and lack of health. 

Can you estimate for us the profit of satisfaction in your 
home for the amount of substance put in? 

Ans. This is a question I often put to myself. 

What complaint do you hear oftenest from other house- 
keepers ? 

Ans. The servant problem. 

How many hours a day do you devote to your house? 

Ans. It seems as if I gave it all my time. 

What are the most nourishing foods taking the least time to 
prepare ? 

40 



4 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HOME 

Ans. Milk and cheese, eggs, fish, and beefsteak. 

What utensils are best for cooking, and why? 

Ans. Enamel, because easiest kept clean. 

What is the best method for cleaning windows and paint.'' 

Ans. Soap and warm water and plenty of good rags. 

What is the best treatment for grease in sink, etc..'' 

Ans. Lye put down once a week. 

What is your opinion of the servant problem? 

Ans. Poor ones should not be paid such high wages, but all 
should be treated better and taught, and more girls should be 
encouraged into service. 

Best method for cleaning silver, brass, nickel, copper, tin, 
aluminum, etc.? 

Ans. Plenty of good old-fashioned "elbow grease." 

Best method for cleaning furniture, books and rugs ? 

Ans. Vacuum cleaner. 

Best method for care of ice-box, stoves and chimneys? 

Ans. Clean them all well periodically. 

Best method for dish washing? 

Ans. Plenty of boiling water, soap, and clean towels. 

Best laundry hints? Best stain remover? 

Ans. Wash things out as soon as they are soiled. Javelle 
water. 

What are your greatest laundry difficulties? 

Ans. To get a good woman who can do the work in less than 
half the week. 

What is the best Kitchen floor you know, and mode of care? 

Ans. Linoleum, washed up each day. 

What is your idea of the best disposal of garbage? 

Ans. Have the garbage man handle it. 

Best method of purifying a cellar? 

Ans. Whitewashing once a year. 

What is your idea of an ideal kitchen? 

Ans. Plenty of room and air. "A place for everything and 
everything in it." The best of fixtures and all in white. 

What are the problems of the country kitchen? 

Ans. Over-amount of heat, over-amount of work, and care- 
lessness of people tracking in and out and leaving things about. 

41 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

What is the easiest way to serve a table? 

Ans. Put everything on at once and let people help them- 
selves. It isn't stylish, but it is the only "easy" way. 

What is the best method of keeping one's hands in order.'' 

Ans. It can't be done if you do housework. 

What part of your home gives the most satisfaction.? The 
greatest dissatisfaction ? 

Ans. My flower garden. 

Ans. The kitchen. 

What Department of Housework do you dislike most.f* 

Ans. Dish washing. 

Have you any suggestions for the older members of the 
family ? 

Ans. Except to make their last years as happy as possible. 

What is the keynote of your principle in the raising of 
children ? 

Ans. Obedience to parents, and to give them all the educa- 
tion and advantages possible. 

Further comment is unnecessary. The present conditions of 
the average home are embodied in the above, showing plainly 
the importance of some practical working out of an ideal that 
will not only be a safety valve for the woman, but a developer 
for the family and a conserver of the home in its best and 
most profitable form. Such an ideal we believe to be found in 
what is known as Scientific Management, which declares Science 
and Art as the fundamental needs of every thoughtful en- 
deavor. The Scientific way of doing everything, as Frederick 
Taylor says. The Scientific selection of the workman. The 
Scientific training of the workman, and perfect co-operation of 
all parts. 

We have defined art as the creation of what ought to be, from 
what is, and Science as the proper method for this creation. 
Let us then see the vision of the new home as it appears when 
we take it in all its parts and translate them to a unit from 
this basis. But before proceeding to those chapters which deal 
with the various sides of home-life in practical detail, let us 
glance at the following questionnaire that was filled out for the 

42 



4 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HOME 

Station in June, 1912, a year after the first one ; showing a very 
different attitude which we find does, and therefore can, exist. 
The same questions answered by another of the New Jersey 
Club women : 

What is your most serious housekeeping problem? 

Ans. The problem of waste, and of being always ready for 
the unexpected. 

On what basis have you built best results, ideal and practical? 

Ans. On the basis of highest possible standards. 

What do you consider the most important problem to be solved 
in the home? 

Ans. The raising of housework from its present common- 
place plane to one of cultural activity. 

Toward what end does your greatest effort tend? For what 
are you living? 

Ans. Toward appreciation and realization of Beauty as the 
highest life. 

Ans. Development and accomplishment. 

What is the greatest thing you have discovered in relation 
to home management? 

Ans. That it is a matter of psychology and that every big 
idea of the world is admirably translatable for the home. 

What do you believe the Housekeeping Experiment Station 
should prove through its labors to the club women of the State? 

Ans. That better organization, management, and progress 
of the home, is the only salvation for the life of the State. 

What mode of living is the most economical? 

Ans. That mode of living that gives the highest and best 
life returns. 

Where is your greatest waste? 

Ans. Waste of time and human energy. 

What is the most valuable housekeeping device you have and 
what do you want most? 

Ans. The Emerson Efficiency System and the automatic 
electric cooker. Want a perfect, automatic, properly moistened 
house-heating device, with smoke and gas consumer attachment, 
and an efficient mind. 

43 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

What has been the chief hindrance in your housekeeping? 

Ans. Lack of knowledge, and lack of a right source of 
knowledge. 

Can you estimate for us the profit of satisfaction in your 
home for the amount of substance put in? 

Ans. The profit of satisfaction is wholly spiritual, and no 
amount of substance put in is too great for such results. 

What complaint do you hear oftenest from other house- 
keepers ? 

Ans. Servant inefficiency. 

How many hours a day do you devote to your house? 

Ans. Average about six hours. 

What are the most nourishing foods taking the least time to 
prepare ? 

Ans. Those foods as near the natural state, as are palatable 
and digestible. 

What utensils are best for cooking, and why? 

Ans. The lightest, the most readily cleansed, and the most 
perfectly shaped. 

What is the best method in cleaning windows and paint? 

Ans. Bon Ami, or Whiting moistened with Alcohol, and a 
chamois. Gasoline or Turpentine for paint. 

What is the best treatment for grease in sink, etc.? 

Ans. Keep grease out; or Kerosene, or boiling water and 
wood ashes, or lye. 

What is your opinion of the servant problem? 

Ans. Elevate housework, standardize home-making, and 
professionalize houseworkers, and the servant problem will take 
care of itself. 

Best method for cleaning silver, brass, nickel, copper, tin, 
aluminum, etc.? 

Ans. Never let it get dirty, or use the best things known 
for each, and electricity for buffing. 

Best method for cleaning furniture, books, and rugs? 

Ans. Keep clean, or use crude oil and hot coffee for furni- 
ture, and vacuum cleaning. 

Best method for care of ice-box, stoves and chimneys? 

Ans. Never let get dirty. 

44 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HOME 

Best method for dish washing? 

Ans. Electric machine. 

Best laundry hints? Best stain remover? 

Ans. Use the sun and morning dew as much as possible. 
Electricity and studied motions. Cold water applied instantly 
for stains. 

What are your greatest laundry difficulties? 

Ans. Too many clothes to be washed. 

What is the best kitchen floor you know, and mode of care? 

Ans. Finest of hard wood, beautifully laid, and merely oiled 
or waxed. 

What is your idea of the best disposal of garbage? 

Ans. Incinerate, and make bricks or fertilizer of the waste. 

Best method of purifying a cellar? 

Ans. No clutter, perfect order, and whitewash occasionally. 

What is your idea of an ideal kitchen? 

Ans. A design and arrangement for least possible expendi- 
ture of effort, in every necessary operation, air from four sides, 
and an atmosphere of cleanliness, comfort, and beauty. 

What are the problems of a country kitchen ? 

Ans. Old conditions, and ignorance of best methods. 

What is the easiest way to serve a table? 

Ans. With a "Table Butler" (revolving center), and "Dumb 
Butler" (a revolving side serving table). 

What is the best method of keeping one's hands in order? 

Ans. To use them intelligently, and oil them frequently with 
the finest of oil. 

What part of your home gives the most satisfaction? The 
greatest dissatisfaction? 

Ans. The beautiful part. The shabby and worn-out parts. 

What part of housework do you dislike most? 

Ans. The routine. 

Have you any suggestions for the older members of the 
family ? 

Ans. That they have their own interests and pursuits 
aside from those of the young people, and that they live 
as independent, self-sufficient, active, progressive lives as 
possible. 

45 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

What is the keynote of your principle in the raising of chil- 
dren ? 

Ans. To cultivate their imaginations, perceptions, their 
power to do, and their reasoning faculties to want to do right. 
Mate them self-reliant and independent. 

This, you see, is not only ringing with hope and ambition, 
but it speaks with authority, in that the writer has already 
proved, certainly to her own satisfaction, the worth of the Effi- 
ciency System, and the truth that it is a solution for the many 
problems of domestic life. A smoothly running home requires 
neither an abundance of time, money, nor strength, but is the 
result of clear determined vision: of proper appreciation of 
proportion, and of Knowing How. 



46 ! 



CHAPTER III 



THE BUDGET 



^^Let us make it all straight, 
1 hae the means i' my budgef^ 

"I am not one thing and my expenditure another; that our expendi- 
ture and our character are twain, is the vice of society " 

Few people with any business sense at all, start out to do 
things, or have things, without a thought as to expense, but 
many there are who count cost, not in relation to life and its real 
needs and values, but to things, and what they think they must 
have. 

It has been said there are few actual necessities for the life 
of man. That depends upon the man, and the side of him that 
is being developed. One can subsist on very little actual food, 
but a man is more than his stomach. Again he can live in the 
crudest and often the most unclean surroundings, but how does 
he live? Does he gain in strength of character and refinement, 
in sympathy, and appreciation? And does he advance in them 
as rapidly as it is normal that he should? Hunger is the su- 
preme test of need, but it should affect the entire man, the soul 
of him, and not merely one of his organs. By all means let us 
encourage the exercise that will make for good healthy appetite, 
but let us have only what we really utilize and make a part of 
ourselves. How many of us want half the junk we gather to 
ourselves in the course of a year? We may think we do at 
the moment, but it has the same effect upon our environment as 
overeating and a bad selection of food has upon our bodies. 
A good clearance sale once a year, is the only cure for a condi- 
tion that should have been prevented, because the giving away 
of things is apt to carry to the other fellow the same trouble 
from which one is ridding one's self. 

To study one's actual requirements, to know the greatest 
need, and to proportion everything in relation to that one mo- 

47 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

tive, is the object of the budget. Income and outgo should be 
guided by something more than mere methods of account, or 
even any declared schedule of proper division, such as 20 per 
cent, for rent, 25 per cent, for food, 15 per cent, operating 
expenses, etc. It is rather, a wise portioning for the proper 
functioning of a body toward the biggest idea, or goal, of 
which that body is capable. 

For instance: a city is moving along on the old basis of 
appropriation. Each Department from time to time requiring 
more and more. The effort being to make suitable allowance for 
the unrelated elements of the place and to keep up with other 
towns. This same City adopts the budget plan, relating its parts 
for one purpose — the welfare of its citizens — and puts before 
itself certain things to be accomplished. It studies its own 
individuality. It learns how to improve upon its good points, 
and bring up its deficiencies, how to best operate for the benefit 
of all its people, and with the least economic waste. It gathers 
from other cities such help and suggestions as can be wisely in- 
corporated into its own life and character, and although it 
uses everything, it imitates nothing. It simply develops itself. 

Again, a family of four, with say $5,000 a year to spend, 
pay the rent that is asked in the part of the town supposed 
to be the elite section. Keep three servants, as is the custom 
of the block, trade with certain stores because of locality, fol- 
low the fashion, as far as possible, and do what other people do, 
of the same set, or class. A sheeplike method, and like sheep 
they are very apt to go astray, or to get nowhere in particular. 
Their money comes and goes, they have little idea of where, 
or how, or if they do keep account, it is only a means of annoy- 
ance. It teaches nothing, for there is no higher standard than 
keeping up and moving on with the crowd. 

Another family of four, on the same block, with the same in- 
come, are there because it is the best location possible for the 
development of that particular family. All requirements have 
been considered, and the decision made upon the principle most 
important in the selection of a home. Namely, the health and 
welfare of that particular family life. The rent is offset by a 
number of real advantages to be found only there. Three serv- 

48 



THE BUDGET 

ants are not a necessity, from the fact that it is better for the 
children to become just as efficient and independent as possible, 
and by adjusting the housework to the ability of one maid, they 
may enjoy thereby many advantages, such as music, and the 
theater, or perhaps an automobile. Purchases are made where 
right quality is assured at the lowest prices, and hfe is lived for 
itself regardless of fashion, or custom. Such a family would 
prosper under the budget plan, for each year there would be a 
definite object for the financial program, with one leading mo- 
tive of expense, upon which the whole family agree and to 
which every other department of spending would be regulated. 
This method would not only guide the expense ship in one 
direction by the co-operation of all concerned, but would be 
a developer and a controlling factor from year to year, helping 
the individual to decide not only the purpose of his own life, 
but that of the family of which he is a part. Even if the pro- 
posed program were not followed exactly, it would give a start- 
ing point and a definite mode of procedure for the year, which 
if found good, or otherwise, would properly affect the next 
year's thought, making the budget from time to time assure a 
better return on the investment. 

The budget system for each member of the family is again of 
prime importance, as distinguished from an. allowance, or a 
mere cost account, the difference being that instead of allowing 
an item of expense, we recognize the right of its existence, and 
the importance of its function, or the part it plays in the scheme 
of the whole. Many wives and daughters, "on an allowance," 
would feel less like weak dependents were they recognized in the 
budget as performing a function in the family organism, that 
entitled them in all justice to a part of the family income. 
This difference in the point of view we find can be brought about 
by the proper understanding and use of the home budget. If 
there is any support for the wife and children, they are entitled 
to it, not simply allowed it, entitled to it for three reasons. 
First, because of their position as wife and children. Second, 
because "money of one's own" makes for strength of charac- 
ter, self-respect, and efficiency. And Third, by proving their 
ability to properly value and handle it. 

49 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

As we only learn by doing, perhaps an illustration of how 
a young girl connected with the Experiment Station, learned 
to value the use of a budget, would best explain its meaning 
to the individual. She had "been allowed" so much a month, 
with the result that she never had enough and was seldom 
satisfied with her investments. The first of the month she would 
give too little consideration to cost, and often be disappointed 
in the real value of an article purchased, but the last of each 
month she either went without, or bought what she didn't like. 
She accumulated what she called a lot of trash, hard to utilize 
because she had followed the wrong kind of fashion, and had 
come to the conclusion that she neither dressed as well as she 
should, nor did the things she might, even on her modest allow- 
ance. How should she change things? She first made a little 
survey of all her needs, studied each part of her dress and her 
expenditures, beginning with shoes. She had been in the habit 
of buying her shoes in all sorts of places for all sorts of modest 
prices, depending upon the appearance only, and the fashion 
as to shape and color, with the result that she was forever 
having shoes that were not comfortable, discarding them when 
only half worn, and because of shifting her foot from one shape 
to another in such promiscuous fashion she had to add to her 
footwear cost, — which in a year was out of all proportion to 
her allowance, — a fairly good-sized chiropodist's bill, and the 
consciousness that not only were her feet never properly shod, 
but they were also being injured. She therefore made a study 
of her foot and its requirements, the way she used it, and its 
correct dressing in relation to her feelings and her mode of 
life. To her surprise she found she could pay an expert shoe- 
maker his price for perfectly fitting and suitable shoes, and 
still save money in the course of a year, beside feeling her feet 
beautifully and comfortably dressed all the time, with no waste 
in half-worn footgear. She sacrificed something in variety, 
perhaps, but what is the use of variety if none of it is really 
good. This same process she applied to her hats, and instead 
of having several half-put-together head coverings, she crowned 
herself with one charming and suitable bonnet for the season, 
and felt her head a constant joy in the air. Her Winter suit 

50 



THE BUDGET 

she found could not be worn out if she lived in it every day on 
an average of six hours for four months ; hence, it was clearly 
bad management to have more than one at a time. And as the 
same held good with other gowns, she found with the right care 
in selection, she needed for the year fewer garments of every 
sort, to really feel and appear better dressed than under the 
old method. What was the difference.'* Simply that instead of 
a haphazard, hit-or-miss habit of a day, she made a yearly 
program, from a year's outlook, first determining her purpose 
and object in spending money, and then by fitting together each 
part through a close study of values. She makes the science 
of purchasing teach her how to live. 

The principle of the budget is the same whether applied 
to a city, a home, or an individual. The money available is of 
prime importance, but to make it produce to its utmost, a defi- 
nite program is essential. The purpose in spending is clearly 
to receive values in proportion to the amount invested. These 
values should be given serious study, for they not only affect 
tremendously every human being included within the program, 
but have besides a very positive reflex action upon the life and 
condition of trade itself, establishing standards that affect the 
progress and the principle of success and morality in all public 
and private business. 



51 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ELIMINATION OF THE SERVANT CLASS 

"They who would he free — 

themselves must strike the blow " 

"The reform that applies itself to the household . . . must break up 
caste, and put domestic service on another foundation" 

Perhaps the most unique feature of the Experiment Station 
is that it has stood from the beginning for the elimination of 
the Servant Class as a necessary element of our industrial and 
social domestic order. In fact, it would seem that there is no 
stronger factor holding the home from its higher realization 
than the one involved in the so-called "Servant problem" of 
the day, irrespective of the fact that the individual servant is 
not to blame any more than the individual mistress. The fault 
lies rather in the social order of things that has given us in 
this country and this age a relic and remnant of ancient slavery 
customs. All because we have believed that certain occupations 
were in themselves menial, when in reality it is the manner of 
doing only that may be menial. 

As only 8 per cent, of the homes of the country employ 
servants regularly, according to latest statistics it would be a 
negligible social situation were it not for the fact that just here 
lies the psychology of the trouble. It Is what the few of the 
so-called "upper class" do, that is consciously and unconsciously 
made the standard throughout society. The ways of the rich 
may seem at times, vulgar and to be condemned, but in most 
cases the lesser rich would do likewise if they could, and the 
really poor would gladly imitate "their masters" if given a 
chance. And so this little 8 per cent, of the people set the 
pace, as it were, in the manner of life. Although in reality the 
money rich are the most dissatisfied and unhappy set of social 
beings, their standards of the externals of life filter down 
through the stratas of the other 90 per cent, just as surely 

52 



THE ELIMINATION OF THE SERVANT CLASS 

as water penetrates the Earth. This it is that gives that tre- 
mendous responsibiHty that should be felt, when money gives 
opportunity. 

The long fight in civilization has been against what is known 
as privilege and its necessary accompaniment, slavery. For 
"my lord" to say "Do this" and "Do that," "Because I com- 
mand you." — "Down in the dirt before me! for 'tis my will," 
was crudely imagined to be a sign of real power. Thus, "Serve 
me well, dog, or you die," is the attitude that has been the in- 
heritance of the condition of the present servant problem. A 
problem with which we are all more or less familiar, but let us 
analyze it for a moment with reference to its effect upon the 
proper progress of the home, and the best interests of the 
Servant Class itself. 

In the first place : the demand for house-servants is very much 
greater than the supply, which always lowers the standard of 
industry, from the fact that any labor, or material, is used and 
thought to be better than none. The last labor statistics in 
New York City showed a demand in that vicinity for 100,000 
more house-workers than the supply. This also makes for a 
shifting from place to place in the hope of variety, or better- 
ment, giving us the appalling fact that of the domestic workers 
placed by the combined Intelligence Offices of New York City, 
the average length of time for them to remain in one place is 
two weeks. Think what this moving army of misfits must mean 
to the peace and serenity of the home circle, as well as to the 
individual stability and character of the Servant. 

Secondly, the higher standards of education have placed most 
of the home requirements on a scientific basis. Everywhere the 
housekeeper and home-maker is impressed with the necessity of 
broader knowledge in the handling of the different household 
departments. The very health and body of the family depends 
to a large degree upon the understanding of the chemistry of 
food and nutrition, the intelligent practice of sanitation and 
hygiene, the comprehension of bacteriology, etc., and while the 
housekeeper is thus impressed as manager, the maid in the 
kitchen is of a type in most cases, that not only has little real- 
ization of these things, but is possessed of a quality of judg- 

53 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

ment at variance with such facts. "Sure, that's all right. 
That's good enough," is declared with whole-hearted honesty 
to many a most unright act, and why not? Why should the 
girl be expected to do otherwise? She is doing for others the 
best she knows, and often as well, or better, than for herself. 
The wonder is, that in so many cases she does do better than 
she knows, but it gives us just at this point between the dis- 
agreeing conviction of the mistress and maid, a house divided 
against itself, which the Scriptures of old said could not endure. 

Thirdly : we cannot gainsay the fact that the world, or public 
life, is the result of home conditions and home impressions, and 
that of all branches of industry, the one operating under the 
most primitive method and upon the most unbusinesslike of 
systems, is that of the average private home. The chaotic re- 
sults of this up-side-down state of affairs is not to be calculated 
in society. Our boys and girls go forth unprepared and in- 
efficient in the competition of life, because of the lack of right 
motive, of clearly defined ideals and standards, and of ability 
to do with their own hands what they think they know with 
their heads. Money-making has been the great motive of in- 
dustry, and money-making with as little work as possible, but 
what use is there in money if it does not make a smoother and 
happier-running world? 

The struggle for existence, or "competition" has forced 
rapid strides in the advancement of public affairs, which, how- 
ever, have neither been balanced, supplemented, nor supported by 
proper progress in the home, and when the cause of this danger- 
ously unrelated condition is searched for, behold, it lies largely 
at the door of the estimate of society as to the Servant Class. 
The very class who are involved in the heart of the situation, 
who come closer to one's real and intimate standards of life 
than many a friend, or relative, who are in a position to learn 
the best and most we have to teach, who administer to our first 
and really intimate needs and come in contact with us at every 
stage of life, is the class that Society has relegated to the 
lowest plane of human beings claiming respectability. House- 
work and house-workers are classified at the very bottom of 
industrial occupations, the evolution of the large and formative 

54 



THE ELIMINATION OF THE SERVANT CLASS 

social order thus resting upon this false and inferior concept. 
Is it any wonder that in so many cases girls prefer any sort of 
factory, shop, or even laundry, or restaurant work that is in the 
nature of business, and will take them from out the condemned 
class of house-servants, to give that feeling of self-respect 
which can only result from a certain sense of freedom in one's 
environment? Is it again any wonder that they have created a 
kind of aristocracy among themselves which establishes a 
waitress, laundress, or parlor-maid on a much higher plane than 
a general housework girl, and thereby made the specialist far 
outnumber the "maid of all work," forcing into the latter posi- 
tion the girl of fewer and fewer attainments and less and less 
ability, until about all she is certain of knowing is that she 
wants $25 a month with the best of food and lodging added, 
for her transient willingness to learn the English language and 
a few of your "ways" ? And then we wonder that our daughters 
do not drift with more interest and enthusiasm toward the unfit 
Kitchen presided over by such a priestess. The marvel is that 
they are ever willing to take their dainty habits and persons 
from the drawing room of music and flowers into such an 
unrelated atmosphere of commonplaceness. For the sake of 
the girls of the future, for the sake of the homes that still are, 
and are to be, for the sake of the men and the results of their 
labors, for the conservation of society and its ideals, and for 
the stability of the State and our Standards of Education, the 
Servant Class, as now existent, must be eliminated. There is 
no possible future for the advancement of either the so-called 
servant, or the home, in the present method. That condition 
we call the *'Servant Problem" cannot fail to become more and 
more serious with each succeeding day. Small as the percent- 
age of servant keepers is found to be in the United States, the 
basis of the problem is so important that it permeates in its 
destructive influence every plane of life. 

The American people in the interpretation of their ideal of 
freedom, saw fit to wage a most deadly and effective war against 
the custom of slavery in this country. The modem domestic 
servant is not a slave in the old sense of complete ownership, 
but the evolution is not so very far removed from the status of 

55 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

her darker sister. To be sure, the modern "Slavy" gives her 
consent, but for what? The sale of her entire time, twenty- 
four hours a day, and seven days in the week, to do the bidding 
of some "mistress" or "master," who in many cases has even 
less consideration than if the slave were permanently the prop- 
erty of the house. We may argue that they have their time 
to sleep and eat, their days "off," their own way in more than 
is just or healthy, and freedom to leave at any moment they 
choose, that in reality it is the mistress who is the modern 
slave in the situation, but in truth it is neither mistress nor 
maid. It is a social condition that affects both disastrously. 
A form of industrial contract, medieval in the extreme, whereby 
a girl is expected to leave her own home and natural surround- 
ings, and live under a foreign and unknown roof, isolated from 
every interest of her native life, ready to be called upon by 
night or by day to serve "Me Lady" — told to hurry and get 
through with one kind of labor in order to be ready for the 
next, with no standard of operation except the will of the 
mistress and her traditional habits. Oftentimes with no one 
to speak to for weeks, and three solitary meals a day taken 
on a time limit in the midst of confusion and a none too at- 
tractive kitchen. You may give to such a girl every evening 
and every afternoon in the week, if you will, the best of rooms 
and all the privileges conceivable; still the fact remains that 
these are but gifts. They are no solution. The servant "con- 
tract" calls for her time by the month, and she is practically 
owned in the situation, told to do this, and do that, and "be 
in" at ten o'clock. She is of course free to change her mistress, 
if she will, but to what end? Only to accept the same "con- 
tract" with another, and perhaps go through the most dis- 
tressing and demoralizing Intelligence Office experience on the 
way. Is it surprising that the servant class furnish the largest 
percentage of women criminals, prostitutes, and victims of the 
social evil? Who of us would join their ranks if it were possible 
to do anything else for a living? None, as the facts show. 
And although there are splendid, able, and dignified women 
working, and to be hired, as servants, the fact remains that they 
are in this class — if not of it — where the occupation is believed 

56 



THE ELIMINATION OF THE SERVANT CLASS 

to be but menial drudgery, and the form of Contract Semi- 
Slavery. What a life ! And how absurdly false its interpre- 
tation ! 

Before the Experiment Station was established to stand- 
ardize housework, its founders made as close a study of the 
servant situation as such a confused field of statistics and 
records upon the subject allowed, and we were impressed with 
the truth that of the thousands of women studying the science 
of Home Economics throughout this country, not one could 
be traced who was employed in domestic service. All were 
teaching, lecturing, writing, or using such knowledge for their 
own satisfaction. All well in its way, but how incongruous, 
that a set of students should fit themselves for a profession, and 
then not practice it. It would seem no more strange if a class 
of lawyers, or physicians, were graduated in their subjects 
merely to talk, teach, or take care of their own persons and 
property. The answer to this, of course, is the servant's posi- 
tion, and the "contract" under which she operates. No thinking 
person will accept such a combination, if there be a possible 
alternative. The really strange part of the problem is that so 
outgrown a system and method should persist in these days 
of human enlightenment. Why should we conceive housework 
to be the lowest of labor? And why continue to believe it 
necessary to keep house-workers under the same roof with the 
family where the work is done.'' One may point to the success 
of the past, as far as the second proposition is conceived, and 
prove that our Marys and Mammys made life worth living, 
and were themselves delightfully contented, but times have 
changed, and the old member-of-the-family sort of help, is all 
but extinct. The dear old Mammy, and the best of Mary souls 
are replaced by a hit-or-miss accident of the moment, who be- 
cause she is not, and cannot be, a member of the family, is an 
extraneous and extravagant appendage, costing the budgetery 
more, far more than is usuallj^ recorded, because one is apt to 
calculate by figures only and not by values. To wages should 
be added not only food, light, heat, water, breakage, and 
wear and tear, but the interest on the building space needed 
to accommodate one or more servants, the extra work that each 

57 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

one brings into the house, by virtue of her living there, the 
decreased efficiency of each as more are added, the harmonious 
handhng of each different temperament, the psychological 
strain in having the personalities about all the time, the care 
in catering continuously and in an approved way, and the 
feeling of responsibility that what is under one's roof is under 
one's guidance, when that is often one of the grievances of the 
watched-over one. 

We have found at the Station that where one maid costs 
$25 a month for wages, she costs $50 in cash, and nearer $100 
in liability values. The second adds 20 per cent, more for 
each, and so on in proportion until either the entire vitality of 
the mistress is needed to "manage" them, or in addition a 
housekeeper, or overseer, is employed, making a feeling among 
the family of living either in someone else's house, or of keep- 
ing a kind of servants' hotel or boarding house; neither of 
which adds proper atmosphere to the home life. 

And so the Servant in the house seems a relic of past tradi- 
tions that is not only outlived, and impossible to continue under 
present conditions, but an unhealthy and degenerating Contract 
for both employer and employee, spreading its malicious in- 
fluence from the family throughout society, and our entire 
educational standards ; holding back the home in its industrial 
and psychic progress and having a most discouraging effect 
upon home-makers, although a problem that really need not 
distress her over-much, for the servant is eliminating herself 
rapidly. The "mistress" part is to meet the situation, evolve 
a better state of affairs from the past and the present, stand- 
ardize housework on the real and high plane where it belongs, 
and create a class of professional workers, independent, self- 
respecting business people, both men and women, for house- 
work positions. 

In the Chapters that follow we hope to show from experience 
at the Experiment Station, that this cannot only readily be 
done, but to prove by what means, and how it has been accom- 
plished here, as well as the why of its importance. 



58 



CHAPTER V 



AN AUTO-OPERATIVE HOUSE 



"Na' house tvill rin itself, girl, but luk wha ye can, do!" 

It is said that no man is indispensable to an institution, and 
if at any time it should so appear, both the institution and the 
man had best beware, for the law of progress is that "Every 
vessel shall stand on its own bottom" ; therefore the man will 
either be over-burdened by the weight and responsibility of the 
institution, or perchance by his own egoism, both of which 
are dangerous human balances to carry. The institution, on 
the other hand, is weakened materially through any such im- 
pression. Ambition, initiative, imagination, and ingenuity are 
kept at the minimum expression amongst the other members 
concerned, and the whole edifice runs the risk of toppling over 
from its own ill-adjustment. 

How many thousands of women there are who actually seem 
to be indispensable to the every-day running of their homes, 
and who would besides, in numberless cases, ignorantly and vol- 
untarily add to their real obligations, that enlarged sense and 
habit of what might be called "Mother-dependence," which not 
only encourages helplessness in the child and in the family as 
a whole, but shatters the growing strength of the home and 
its helpful relation to other homes, and proves itself sooner or 
later deadly and dangerous in its reaction upon the mother, or 
mistress of the house herself. To be constantly asked: Where 
is my cap? — ^Where did you put my slippers. Mother? — How 
do you want the books arranged? — Do you know who has had 
the new time-table? — and the many inquiries of like kind that 
come with each day's routine, simply steals into the vitality of 
the house-mother, bit by bit, until in due time the summing 
up of such trivial happenings writes its indelible influence in a 
kind of nervous exhaustion, that recommends itself in nowise, 
unless perchance to the few morbid-minded who would be mis- 

59 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

erable in order to call forth a sentimental sympathy from those 
near and dear. 

Putting aside this small class of over-feminine and unnatu- 
ral beings, we find the very large majority of women looking 
forward with dread to any such possible break-down. At the 
same time prematurely helping on the catastrophe by not being 
willing or able to apply the remedy after the need becomes ap- 
parent. There is a haunting ghost in the thought of — What if 
I become helpless next week, or next year?, and worse, far worse 
is the vision of what will happen to the family? The doctor, or 
husband possibly, anticipating the result of such mental con- 
fusion, advises the lady to take herself off to some quiet resting 
place for a time. Such advice frequently but adds to her terror, 
from the fact that she cannot picture how the house could pos- 
sibly run in her absence, and so she heroically, or more often 
stupidly, sticks to her post in order to be on hand to continue 
to carry a burden unnecessarily heavy, and greater than ever 
should have been allowed to accumulate upon her delicate shoul- 
ders. If only she knew someone to take her place for even a 
short time! But after vainly running over the list of possible 
substitutes, she comes to the conclusion : "No one would really 
know how. I could not rest thinking everything was being- 
turned upside down, or neglected. There is nobody who knows 
either my ways, or the many peculiar demands of this particu- 
lar house. It would not work, and it would cost me more than 
the rest is worth. No, I'll get along in some way, or if I break 
down, we'll have to engage a trained nurse, but why am I so 
helpless in the situation?" Many a fantastic phrase of one 
age is a visible fact in the next. The one of not so very long 
ago often sarcastically put to the fastidious : "You should be 
carried around in a glass case with all the luxuries at hand," 
is now practically illustrated on every good road in the land. 

"I wish the house would run itself," is a state yet to be real- 
ized, but a real step has been taken to bring this would-be 
condition about, at the Housekeeping Experiment Station. Our 
ideal, or ambition being to so ordain the whole, that anyone with 
a general knowledge of housekeeping, might be able to take 
charge of the average house, at a moment's notice. In fact, 

60 



AN AUTO-OPERATIVE HOUSE 

we arranged our system with the ideal in mind, that not even 
a word need be spoken between the outgoing and the incoming 
manager ; a mere gesture of the hand as to where to find the 
central desk, or starting point, being sufficient. 

If the size of the house warrants, there should be a home- 
office for the business and clerical work of the establishment. 
Our plan includes such a room on the Ground Floor, where a 
desk, a typewriter, a dictaphone, and several files may be found. 
In the center of the desk is a small card index which tells of 
the location and uses of the several rooms and closets through- 
out the house, and a general index of material. All the doors 
of the house are marked on the outside with small metal num- 
bers near the handle, that they may not be over-conspicuous. 
The contents of the room and its location is indicated by a card 
in a small metal rim on the inside of the door, from which one 
is led to the various lists of articles in their respective depart- 
ments. For instance ; a card in the small box on the desk would 
indicate "Library — Door 3, First Floor," or "Linen Room — 
Door 7, Second Floor." If one would look for Books, Peri- 
odicals, Playing Cards, Towels, Sheets, etc., they will be found 
Door No. 3, First Floor, Card on inside of door, or Door No. 
7, Second Floor, Card on inside of door, from which cards 
one will be directed to the particular list of Books, or Period- 
icals, Playing Cards, Towels, Sheets, etc., desired, and any 
necessary description of each, such as Sheets for Room No. 6, 
Sec. 2, Shelf 4, or Towels for Bath Room A, Shelf 3, Sec. 3. 
The cataloging of the library follows the simplified plan of that 
used in the Public Library, and in fact was listed by one trained 
in that subject. That of the other rooms of the house, and 
in truth the entire system, was worked out by our local club 
with the idea of its proving a self-showing system to the stran- 
ger who would take charge at a moment's notice, and a simple 
radiating method needing the least possible time in the using 
and the care of it. 

As an illustration, the incoming stranger might suddenly 
want a spool of white cotton, or a piece of court-plaster. 
"Spools of thread" would be indexed. Door 8, Second Floor, 
Inside Card, which card would show "white cotton, Drawer 6, 

61 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Sec. 4." If court-plaster happened to be too insignificant to 
list in the main list, it would naturally be looked for in the 
"Medicine Closet," Door 7, Second Floor, Inside Card, from 
which point it would be listed Shelf 2, Box 3, and upon opening 
the box if more than court-plaster happened to be part of its 
contents, a further card on the cover would show its location, 
and the kind to be found. 

Or take the whereabouts of molasses, or sugar, General In- 
dex says : "Kitchen, Door 9, First Floor." Inside card, "Mo- 
lasses, Cupboard 6, Shelf 4, Sec. 1." Sugar, Door B, Inside 
Card, from which one would see, "Sugar, Shelf 2, Sec. 1." 

All this may seem unnecessarily complicated, confusing, and 
time consuming, but so did the first index and cataloging sys- 
tem seem to the Public Library and the shop. The smaller 
institutions particularly were loath to fall in line with the adop- 
tion of what seemed to them a plan suited only to the larger 
and more complex situation where great quantities of mate- 
rial were handled and where there were frequent changes among 
the operators. It took some time to realize its universal appli- 
cation to both the big and the little enterprise, but where now 
can be found an up-to-date shop, library, business, or public 
institution, without some such system.'' No matter how small 
the start, to succeed they must be on a business basis, which 
includes all the independence and auto-operation possible. The 
frequent difficulty has been, however, that the various card- 
cataloging systems have become so involved that they have 
not only needed to be carefully studied in the beginning, but 
each operator has suggested the possibility of still another to 
do the "checking up," as it were, until the fault of "too much 
red tape" has discouraged the would-be orderly manager. In our 
house system we have tried to avoid the possibility of this dan- 
ger, by keeping in mind what seemed to be the simplest method 
consistent with the thought of a home running itself. 

A colored diagram showing at a glance the very root and 
design of the index system is at the housekeeper's desk, and any 
and all information concerning the home, or the family, may 
be here classified. Each Department is made to branch out, 
as it were, in the nature of a tree. Each branch in turn direct- 

62 



AN AUTO-OPERATIVE HOUSE 

ing, or guiding to the twig form of index, until as each separate 
leaf is individualized and located, so each article in the home 
is ordered and tagged in its proper place and related to the 
economic arrangement of the whole. 

Such a plan does not, as may at first appear, either delay, 
or interfere with the process of housework. On the contrary, we 
have found that while one cannot trace the tree with quite the 
speed of the squirrel, it nevertheless makes for better time, 
certainty, directness, and independence than the old kind of 
order where somebody must carry it all in her head, and show, 
or direct each inquirer. Such a system also adds an incentive 
to keep things in order; where even the child realizes he is 
going to put the whole scheme out of place by neglecting to 
keep something as it should be kept. He at once feels a sense 
of responsibility and importance to do the right and orderly 
thing, particularly if he has taken part in the plan from the 
beginning. Added to this, it relieves enormously that burdened 
sense of responsibility which holds so many home-women in 
the vice of the health-wearing feeling of having to meet the 
over-numerous, little, wearing, local and unnecessary demands 
of the hour. 

The right sort of home-maker will always feel the real wel- 
fare of the home largely dependent upon her, and an obligation 
to give of her best toward the proper development and atmos- 
phere of what should be the highest spiritual standard possible 
for the family life, but to believe she must at the same time 
personally keep track of every duster and button-hook is mini- 
mizing her ability to reach greater and more creative heights 
of usefulness, and maximizing her tendency to deteriorate into a 
mere domestic drudge. 

The periodical house-cleaning spasms which housewives 
have exhibited from time to time, have been largely prompted 
by that desire to free one's self from the accumulated confusion 
and disorder of things. To know that everything is in its 
proper place gives a restful feeling to most people, but in how 
many houses is this restful feeling a permanence? Appar- 
ently very few, due in great degree to the fact that the family 
are not constantly "hned up," as it were, to a business-like 

63 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

point of view of the home in this particular, or to any definite 
system in which each member is equally involved, but rather 
are living under a vague notion that somebody will keep the 
house straight. The only weapons needed are criticism, insist- 
ence, and mutual dependence. Scientific management rests upon 
a well-ordered independence in operation, and unless a house is 
started upon this road, it will lack the fundamental element 
that makes for the success of the modern standardized home 
environment which is created not by any one member of the 
family, but ordained and sustained by each one thinking, doing, 
and being his utmost on a co-operative productive basis : busi- 
ness-like in its practical foundation, but surpassing all busi- 
ness expression in its own natural and poetic possibilities. 



64 



CHAPTER VI 



THE BUSINESS OF PURCHASING 



"Human wants of dearest value hang on slender strings'* 

"We must not make believe with our money, but spend heartily 
and buy UP and DOWN" 

The business of purchasing involves first of all a knowledge 
of values. To decide what is really wanted, to appreciate the 
worth of the article when found, and to utilize it to the best 
possible advantage, is the self-evident standard to be attained 
in the study of how to spend. But what do we mean by the 
knowledge of values? For within this many-sided and most 
important phase of this subject, the housekeeper is most deeply 
involved. To know not only what is of immediate worth, but 
how one's purchases will affect other consumers, the distrib- 
uters, the producers, and trade at large, thereby reaching out 
and molding the future conditions under which purchasing 
must be done. This it is that should make for the final de- 
cision in the business of buying. Every article that is bought 
under any circumstances whatsoever, no matter how trivial or 
insignificant, affects the Market. As a pebble thrown into the 
stream plays upon the water, starting from a tiny center, but 
disturbing a larger and larger circle with each succeeding 
ripple. Take, for instance, the "staff of life." We must all 
buy bread, or such material as will produce it. Of the latter, 
flour is the essential ingredient; the one article purchased by a 
larger number of housekeepers than any other single thing in 
the house. The value of bread is to feed in order to nourish 
the body. How many of us know the quality of wheat best 
suited for this purpose? To be sure, we know names and labels 
that stare at us from package, fence, and page, each declaring 
Itself "the best" and "the only one of Its kind on the market," 
but how little this means In the face of our ignorance as to how 
it should look, taste, and feel, and under what processes it 

65 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

should be cleansed, and the changing conditions of trade under 
which we buy. You may say that a good Firm, or House, is 
sufficient guarantee; that people who have built up a business 
on a reliable and honest foundation, have made a special study 
of their subject and the best method of its production; they 
therefore "stand back of it" at all times with the strength of 
their reputation and cannot afford to offer you nor allow you 
even to purchase an inferior article under their label. But there 
are two things always to keep in mind just here. That the 
manufacturer himself is not infallible as to what is the very best 
even in his own line. And also in the last analysis the pur- 
chaser is his standard of quality. "What the people want" is 
the curse of the market, as it is the curse of the press, the 
stage, and the economic and art world generally. But as there 
is no curse that does not carry with it the elements of a bless- 
ing, or in other words, no destructive process that cannot be 
made the basis of construction, so "what the people want" may 
be our great adjuster and the true standard of excellence. But 
they must know what they want and not merely desire, or be 
made to drift toward what is, in an aimless and irresponsible 
mood. 

Wheat is a basic form of supply that might be called the 
universal food for man in all countries and under almost all 
conditions. It will give him the perfect "balanced rations" that 
his body demands, with the addition perhaps of some fat, but 
that does not mean that one will not starve to death on the 
bread that is set upon most of the tables of the country, and 
why? Simply because the manufacturers of flour in catering 
to the demand of the consumer for a white anemic and per- 
verted food, have made it all but impossible to buy the whole of 
the wheat in such form as should best be valued by the house- 
wife. 

In the Book of Books, we are told that man came from "the 
dust." In a handful of earth there are practically sixteen 
natural elements, and curiously enough there is to be found 
the same sixteen in proper proportion in every perfect grain of 
wheat. It would therefore seem to need but little imagination 
to picture what would be the result when not only nine of these 



THE BUSINESS OF PURCHASING 

elements are removed in modern milling, but the seven remain- 
ing which are minus the heart of the grain, put through a 
patent process of bleaching and heating that results in not 
only a partial food, but one in which subtly lurks all manner of 
danger to the body, anemia, neurasthenia, constipation etc., 
from the fact that the system requires for its right metabola- 
tion, the entire list of elements in the same relation and pro- 
portion that were placed in the wheat by Nature herself. It 
therefore behooves the housewife, if she would really nourish, 
as well as simply feed her family, to know the actual value of 
flour; to appreciate its appearance, its taste and flavor, and 
to become skilled in its use. In the Chapter on the Preparation 
of Food, we will repeat this most important lesson. Here, we 
propose merely to suggest certain neglected points in the con- 
sumer's sense of responsibility as a purchaser. Demand, truly 
enough, regulates the market, but that demand if it is to make 
for better conditions, must be intelligent, with the realization 
of what the material purchased is designed to accomplish, the 
true quality of each article must be recognized, and its proper 
use demonstrated, if we would do our part in establishing "what 
the people want," thereby protecting ourselves and others from 
the dangers of a perverted market and the exaggerated cost of 
artificial living. Just so long as we purchase in a mechanical 
sort of way, believing we have the right thing simply because 
we have asked the dealer for "the best," or for some "brand" 
or make, unknown to us except by name, there is grave danger 
of the consumer being exploited to the full limit of her sus- 
ceptibility. Only by becoming an intelligent purchaser can she 
relieve that very large part in the cost of living which is the 
result of her own neglect of the essential study of values. For 
there is a great waste ever going on, because of her thought- 
less isolation from the three-part movement of the wheel of 
commerce, of which she should be the enlightened controller, 
instead of, as so often happens, the cajoled victim. The great 
wheel in which the producer forms the hub, or central pivot, 
the distributer the various spokes, and the consumer the rim. 
The wheel that not only requires the proper co-operation of its 
rim, through a complete readjustment, but the doing away of 

67 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

the surplus spokes that have too heavily weighted its would-be 
easy movement. For these extra spokes have almost taken the 
place of the rim in the middleman's effort to push his part to 
the limit. Faulty distribution is the problem of its weight and 
waste in action. An unrelated, unformed and unorganized rim 
the cause of this waste. 

What encouragement is there to raise apples, or make cloth 
when it is but chance if it proves not to be a loss for the pro- 
ducer to get his goods in sight even of the consumer? Not 
long since a barrel of apples was purchased by a friend of the 
writer for $5.95, which contained a note from the grower say- 
ing: "This fi*uit brought me 57c. What did you have to pay 
for it.''" Counting 25 cents for the barrel and 30 cents for 
transportation, the most we could figure for actual cost was 
$1.12. Where did the $4.83 profit come in? Surely not to 
any one agent, but undoubtedly much of it was divided between 
some unnecessary middlemen. The surplus spokes of the wheel, 
unfortunately, cannot be removed by any one repair shop, but 
must be eliminated through the rim and the hub coming into 
better and more efficient relation. The Parcel Post is hopeful — 
although unreliable and ill-adjusted, as yet, it should help 
in our need for a shorter, simpler and more direct route from 
the farm to the kitchen door. Nothing can so quickly bring 
this about as an intelligent demand on the part of the pur- 
chaser for such a route, and nothing will focus our attention 
upon the practical working out of such a system so readily as 
to realize our place and function in a more easy revolution of 
this wheel. The consumer must not be circled around un- 
knowingly, for the time has come when she — (and we say 
she, because the woman is the purchasing agent for the home) — • 
is the only salvation in the economics and ethics of trade. The 
dealer is helpless. The shop is but the medium between the 
fixed conditions of larger combines which are the wholesale 
standards and her whim, her prejudice and her demands. To 
be sure, it is a distributing center and as such one of the 
spokes, undeniably (in lesser numbers than now exist) a neces- 
sary spoke, but it is in her power not only to control the stand- 
ards of the retail business in a town, but to close them out 

68 



THE BUSINESS OF PURCHASING 

when it be her will. She may combine to purchase her material 
co-operatively, or she may thoughtlessly drive the poor dealer 
into greater expense and waste than competition can endure, by 
her fastidious desires for elaborate wrapping, costly packages, 
a luxurious environment and frequent and expensive delivery, 
as is becoming a necessity even in the small store. Co-opera- 
tive buying while appealing to us of the Housekeeping Station 
as a legitimate and practical method of cutting down the cost 
of living, at the same time, suggests a kind of action in retreat, 
a running away from actual responsibilities in the social and 
economic world of trade of which we as consumers are an 
integral part. 

Co-operation, yes ; first, last and all the time, but rather an 
educated co-operation of the normal purchasing units, that go 
to make up a healthy, prosperous business in the town In which 
each Is a factor. This can be developed only by the various 
parts of that business coming Into sympathy and understand- 
ing with each other. A beginning has been made in this direc- 
tion, among the merchants of various cities, but so far as we 
have any knowledge, the consumers, or the women of the town 
have not been included in these meetings for the advancement 
of trade. And yet Is there any reason why the Woman's Club, 
the Manufacturer's League, the Growers' or Farmers' Associa- 
tion, and the Board of Trade, should not all come together and 
study their economic relation to each other? And more than 
this, the Woman's Club is the agent to initiate just such a 
movement. A combine of this sort would not only be of in- 
estimable value to the business of the town, but to the woman 
nature as well and to the working out of the home budget. For 
it is her weakness, we may say, to consider the grocer on the 
corner and the little shop in the middle of the block, from a too 
personally sympathetic point of view. The good of the town, 
and the prosperity of business Itself Is that there should be 
fewer and better grocers, butchers and bakers. In almost every 
town of New Jersey there are so many of these duplicate shops, 
that they not only destroy each other, but the character and 
standards of trade that would be possible were It not for the 
competition that is almost illegitimate In Its closeness, express- 

69 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

ing itself in one way through "cut prices" and in another 
through a form of "Bargain Sales." If ever a financial and 
social danger should be avoided, it is the premeditated bargain 
sale. What we believe to be "below cost" to-day has subtly 
concealed within its plan the greater expense and waste for 
the purchaser of to-morrow. The consumer has no idea of the 
moral, as well as economic effect of this universal desire to get 
something for nothing, or she would be ashamed to purchase 
from the average Bargain Store, or Counter. This alone is a 
subject of interesting study for any woman's club interested in 
the civic questions of the day, but too large a problem to have 
more than mention in this Chapter. 

The business of purchasing, as we see it from the scientific 
housekeeping point of view, resolves itself then into something 
more, — even for one's own protection, — than supplying the 
actual material needed to run the home. It means keeping 
in close touch with the market. It means knowing the right 
sort of goods to be produced, and the methods best suited to 
their distribution. It means taking an active part in the busi- 
ness of the town and doing one's utmost to protect and support 
the merchants who prove themselves worthy from an efficient 
and ethical standpoint. The honest dealer is too often wiped 
out of existence because of the ignorance and thoughtlessness 
of the average woman customer, who requires him to keep an 
up-to-date and even luxurious shop. To have a large and 
varied stock of goods. To wait upon her every mood with time 
and courtesy, sending orders several times a day to the other 
end of town should her memory happen not to be of the best, 
and while he is trying to make good in the situation, she will 
without thought of the consequences walk across the street, or 
next door, and buy large orders of inferior goods, perhaps at 
short weight and under unsanitary conditions, because of a 
"cut rate" sign in the window of some staple article that can- 
not possibly be sold legitimately under the "one price system" 
except at a loss that only those understanding the trade trick 
fully appreciate. 

Of course we do not mean that to be simply honest is suffi- 
cient reason for support. A dealer must also be efficient, know 

70 



THE BUSINESS OF PURCHASING 

his business, and do his best if he expects the world to help him 
succeed, but such a standard applies just as well to the cus- 
tomer. It is her business to know that a bushel of potatoes, for 
instance, should weigh 60 lbs. ; that the law says all dry 
measures should also have certain weight. She should know 
that an ordinary hen's egg may and does often weigh 3 ounces, 
and that many of the eggs on the market weigh from 1 to 2 
ounces apiece, which makes the cost of one dozen three times 
what might be, in actual egg material. She should know the 
real weight of nutritive value in package goods and whether 
the added convenience in handling is worth the price. A great 
cracker concern has lately expended thousands of dollars for 
machinery that would fill the same sized box with one less 
cracker than formerly. Such an act is significant. To elimi- 
nate waste everywhere is immensely worth while, but the con- 
sumer must be ever on the alert that she be given her money's 
worth at all times in the value of the material as well as in bulk, 
or in proper count. A dozen apples may weigh 3 lbs., or they 
may weigh 8 lbs. A small bottle of olive oil at 25 cents in 
actual measurement, without considering quality, costs $7.80 a 
gallon, when the very best may be bought in the retail market 
for $3, or 75 cents a quart measure. Labels of course are to 
be read and studied as to their meaning, but they tell only a 
tiny part of the story of the goods, and since "the back of the 
Pure Food Law has been broken," they tell so little that one is 
not safe in putting even slight faith in their meaning. No, 
there is no escape for the consumer except to know what is 
meant by the business of purchasing. Education from all sides 
is her only protection in the great problem of the high cost of 
living. Its solution is concerned more with the women than 
with any other one factor. To guarantee herself right values, 
she must do her part to protect the home in its material and 
supplies, and in the plan of the budget that is the means of 
control. It is just as interesting to study how things are 
made and under what conditions, as it is to study foreign coun- 
tries. It is as fascinating to appreciate proper textiles and 
their qualities, as to design them. It Is as useful to know, for 
instance, the effect of cold storage upon foods, its use, and its 

71 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

abuse, and the very great part it plays in the economic and 
health problems of the day, as to know the science of cookery. 
It is as necessary to fight for proper inspection of our food 
supply, and the unadulterated and reliable or staple form of 
all material that goes to make a home, as to fight for suffrage ; 
for the right of suffrage without knowledge of conditions lessens 
its greatest value. These things are big subjects for women; 
that, however they may desire to evade them, cannot with im- 
punity be dismissed with a phrase. It is the woman's work of 
the future. She is the last word, the responsible monitor, and 
the tribunal of man and his prosperity, and if she has any 
real and unselfish love for him who is nearest her heart, or the 
womanly conception needed in the making of the larger home 
of the future, she will realize that these things, as well as her 
own protection, are dependent upon her better knowledge of 
the values of life. The study of the business of purchasing, 
and all that is involved in knowing what she wants, in ap- 
preciating form and quality, and in being able to properly 
utilize the material of her choice, is a subject of interest to 
every woman, that cannot fail to help her realize the importance 
in each simple act of personal selection. 



72 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ROUTE OF MATERIAL 

"'A place for everything, and everything in its place'* 

Within the evolution of all things, some of the sayings of our 
grandmothers but come to us again in another and more defi- 
nite form for new use and understanding. 

We find the word "Routing" merely the modern, efficient 
expression for the old command: "Make your head save your 
heels," and for the better carrying out of such familiar counsel 
as : "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well." 

If the business of buying for the home is, as we believe it to 
be, of immense importance and significance to the world of 
commerce, as well as the individual, then that of the storing 
and using of materials becomes closely allied in consideration to 
that of the study of values in purchasing. For what, why and 
how are these goods to be used.'' 

The only way to properly "route" the various departments 
of an industry, is to have in mind the entire object for which 
such separate departments exist. Perhaps the main and con- 
tinuous purpose of a home is the furnishing of food. We must 
procure, prepare and clear away food, but food of what nature 
and why.P Again, we should keep the various rooms, particu- 
larly the sleeping rooms, in orderly, attractive and sanitary 
condition, but what motive prompts us to this? 

We should have fresh, clean linen on demand, and always be 
ready to respond to the children, to receive a friend, or help a 
neighbor, but how? Within what method? And to what end? 
Let us become psychologically disposed for a moment, and move 
from hence intelligently toward the concrete and separate facts. 

A home is, as we know, a center of love. The object of such 
a center is to live under maximum blessings. To live fully and 
truly, one must have health, wealth and prosperity. Therefore 
a home should be the supply house for the means to insure these 

73 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

conditions. Physical, mental, moral and spiritual health is the 
result of right food, feeling and action. Wealth includes com- 
forts, talents, peace and affection, which in whole are procur- 
able only through the means of some money and personal 
development. Prosperity, on the other hand, presupposes knowl- 
edge, productiveness, religion, and happiness, and expresses 
itself best through initiation and a proper sense of the inter- 
relationships of life. A home somewhat resembles the ideal 
school, save that it is more fundamental and recreational and 
includes more subjects. The model school is a place to learn 
to know, to learn to do, to learn to he, and the greatest of these 
is to he. The right and the left hand of knowledge, we find 
to be attention and perception. That of doing, includes imag- 
ination and perseverance, and to be one's best, one must ever as- 
pire and determine. Where this triune purpose is intelligently 
carried out, the individual should find himself well equipped, 
or schooled, to take his part in the outside world, but the home 
is not merely a place in which to learn. It is rather a center 
in which and from which to live. We must therefore plan a 
little larger and more inclusive course than the school through 
which each member shall pass if he would grow to the full limit 
of the seed that is in him. In the ideal home we discover rather 
a double triangle of needs. A meaning of not only what it is to 
learn, but what shall it be to live? 

There are six motives that together move the soul of man 
to be, and it is essential that we keep the Inner Light so burn- 
ing that all six may ever see the vision of the coming day, — 
namely : 

Health, or the very spirit of man, which is maintained by 
proper food and effort. 

Wealth, or its means in matter, which is determined by one's 
power of imagination and utilization. 

Knowledge, or that desire for truth which grows with dis- 
crimination and experience. 

The love of beauty, which is the very soul of Creation, bom 
of desire and the Art instinct. 

Sociability, moving toward the Brotherhood of Man, guided 
by relationship and sympathy. 

74 



THE ROUTE OF MATERIAL 

And last of all, a motive of Tightness which interprets God 
in a practical application of religion and a working sense of 
justice. 

These are the roots that must be started to grow in the home. 
The native necessities that are mothered and cultivated from 
day to day. Fed by the family life, and made to act by reason 
of the daily requirements, and the kind of surroundings. 

In every house there are found to be certain essential duties, 
or occupations, that form the very substance of the structure 
upon which the family life rests and moves, and while these vary 
in degree and kind, the main factors and principles are the same 
in all home-making, and the first effort in routing the work 
should be to determine these most important factors, and then 
the details. This can only be properly understood by studying 
all the elements collectively, so that their interdependency and 
interrelationship shall be clearly perceived. Every requirement 
included by the kind of business to be housed, the sort of work, 
and the results wanted. One should have a clear and definite un- 
derstanding of just what each department includes, and not 
only be able to perform the work properly, but have a knowl- 
edge of the fundamental principles of each part, as well as the 
whole. The efficiency of a home is in proportion to the degree 
in which its equipment, materials, and operations are intelligently 
managed and controlled to produce the results desired. In 
other words, by the way in which its material is utilized, the 
problem being the interrelation of it all. 

One must consider the effect of each act upon those that 
follow, for all conditions that exist are the result of former acts. 
To plan ahead is to see clearly causes and effects as they will be 
made to move in regular sequence, beginning with the initial 
effort. 

All work should be so planned that there are no steps to be 
retraced. Everything should be arranged to make it easy to 
pass from one occupation to another with the least possible 
waste in time, or motion, and where it is practical, work should 
proceed from left to right. 

Housework, in order that it fulfill its varied mission, is made 
up of a great variety of subjects, and yet they may be reduced 

75 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

to three main departments. That of food, laundry, and cleaning. 
There is besides these, the one of sewing — although this is not 
usually classed as housework — and that of nursing, or the 
care of the children, which again while it is a part of the home 
and involves much of the home-work, is not strictly speaking to 
be classified as housework proper, and therefore will be con- 
sidered in a later chapter. 

The material, — its use and its location, — that enters into the 
proper carrying out of these three principal branches in the 
making of a home, is the immediate subject for our considera- 
tion. After it has been purchased and brought to the door, 
what should be its route? 

At the Experiment Station one of our efforts was to make it 
unnecessary for the delivery man, or boy, to come into the 
house. A sort of receiving station was improvised, consisting 
of a well-designed receptacle, a shelf or broad ledge, and a 
small drop table just over the pump, particularly instituted to 
receive the washed and ready vegetables from the garden. Just 
inside the porch door, on a small shelf, was placed a standard 
pair of scales weighing from a fraction of an ounce to twenty- 
five pounds. Under this a standard set of dry and of wet meas- 
ures is to be found, and a file for all bills, receipts and notices. 
Everything can therefore be checked up, measured and weighed 
before routing it to its prepared place of storage, which is, 
by the way, as nearly in the place where it is to be first used as 
is possible to arrange it. String and paper when kept, is de- 
posited right at hand, a scrap basket receiving what is dis- 
carded. Of course the storing is controlled more or less by 
the main equipment of the house, the location of cupboards, 
ice-box, working table, etc., but proper routing should place 
these in the readiest location. The arrangement of the equip- 
ment of each department, not only requires the most compe- 
tent knowledge that can be found, but this knowledge should 
include that of being skilled in just how to do the actual work, 
according to the most efficient system. In preparing and clear- 
ing away meals, there are probably more trips made to the ice- 
box than any other spot, unless it be the sink, or water supply. 
Therefore in our case the ice-box was placed where it mini- 

76 



THE ROUTE OF MATERIAL 

mized these steps, requiring only one from the dining-room and 
three from the kitchen. The working table came next, with 
storage places for dry and staple goods both over and under 
it, somewhat in the form of a cabinet, but not as confining. 
Places for all sorts of things, such as tools and conveniences, 
were assembled about this particular table. Next to the table 
came the stove, which being practically heatless, was no ob- 
jection in its nearness. Just around to the right was placed 
the receiving table for food ready to serve, en route to the din- 
ing-room. Thus making a perfect succession of the parts of the 
act of preparing the food for the table, with the least confusion 
and waste of effort. 

Again, with the return of the dishes, after being placed to- 
gether, they are taken back in one trip, the food stopping at 
the ice-box, or safe, and the dishes moving on to the machine, 
or place of washing, which is directly under where they are 
stored, thus making a simple circuit of this whole procedure, that 
must be so great a part of the day's routine. No travel in a 
backward direction is allowed in a properly routed task. To 
progress uniformly is the continuous object. The same prin- 
ciple we find applies in the cleaning of a room. All the mate- 
rials needed in the process should be kept or stored as near the 
point of use as can be arranged. But for the more rapid dis- 
patching of this work, let us take an entire floor as an example, 
rather than one room, the idea being that it is much easier to 
move along in one kind of task to the finish, provided it be not 
too long and fatiguing, than to jump from one thing to an- 
other too rapidly. 

The old way to clean a room was to first dry dust everything, 
beat, brush and move out the furniture, attack the floor vigor- 
ously with the broom, after closing all doors that the cleaning 
of one room might not contaminate another. Bring the tools 
from all over the house, prepare one's self for an attack of 
dirt and all the rest of it. The present routing of the work 
in the cleaning of a main floor of a modern home is carried on 
under more humane and civilizing methods. One need hardly 
think of protecting one's self from the dust, any more than in 
walking in the street, or moving about at pleasure. Glove your 

77 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

hands, if you will, and use a dustless duster, or any means that 
will not scatter dirt. Pass from one section to another, mak- 
ing each surface in turn as spotless and orderly as may be. 
Progress from left to right, until each piece of furniture has 
been carefully gone over. Do likewise with the windows, walls 
and woodwork, sucking the dirt into an efficient cleaner, until 
the circuit has been made, when the floors are ready, nothing 
having been disturbed from its place, or covered for protection. 
A good suction sweeper may be made to pass from one rug, or 
carpet, to another in rapid succession, the finishing touch being 
a dustless mop where any hardwood floor needs attention, and 
perchance a few flowers to grace the result. 

This method followed in the efficiency spirit by actual test 
not only reduces the time and labor 50 per cent, over the old 
way, but leaves the worker comparatively unfatigued and in 
personal ease and fitness. 

And so in the routing of the laundry work, which we shall take 
up in another chapter. 

Enough has been said here to suggest not only the practical 
value in a well-thought-out routing system, but its intimate 
connection with the purpose for which the home exists. There 
can be little health, wealth, or prosperity, unless the very center 
of love in which one lives, moves on in a thoughtful way to 
supply the physical needs of the family within which rests the 
substance for the mental, moral and spiritual quickening of the 
individual. 

The routing that realizes the most perfect daily results is 
more than the kind of material used, and more than the sepa- 
rate tasks. It is practically the effect of one's closest environ- 
ment, as it were, in its activity. The interrelation of the domes- 
tic activities with the domestic life, for life in the average home 
is of necessity moving rapidly all the time. So much so that 
the scheduling of each task becomes the scientific means of car- 
rying out the right form of routing. To plan ahead, so that 
the proper provision is made for the completion of each task 
in a given amount of time, is the object of a schedule. This is 
considered by many authorities to be perhaps the greatest eco- 
nomic factor in production. The cost of operating can only 

78 



THE ROUTE OF MATERIAL 

be at its lowest where the work has been planned with the equip- 
ment to fit the demands of the most efficient schedule. 

The average woman thinks she knows about how long it will 
take her to perform a given task, but a few minutes more or 
less makes very little difference. A man scheduling the work 
of a factory, or shop, on the other hand, makes a most careful 
study of these few minutes. Can they be reduced, is his ques- 
tion, and he answers it by working at them assiduously with 
every means known to his profession, just because it is the 
economic point that may be changed, thereby resulting in profit, 
but a home schedule should be a fairly flexible one. It should 
follow a clearly defined routing diagram, but it should give 
way whenever the profit of the home counts for more than 
arriving at each station on time. 

We should, however, form very clear and graphic pictures, 
or diagrams, of just what is to be done, why, and how, and 
keep score-cards of results, with a modern filing-system for 
reference. In this way only can we properly schedule and dis- 
patch a given task. Results are much more readily realized 
when we have formed the habit of quickly and definitely group- 
ing facts and parts together, forming the image that we would 
like to have realized. Such images are then but waiting to be 
summoned into existence. 

"With a place for everything and everything in its place." 
With a real understanding of the most intelligent system of 
"routing," which is the basis of the desire to "Make your head 
save your heels," and with a well-planned schedule to guide 
each step by the way, surely, as our grandmothers said — 
"What is worth doing at all is worth doing well." 



79 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE INSTRUCTION BUREAU 



"A slender beginning, gradually forming a 

select Instruction outline 

— The foundation of right work" 

As one pictures the amount and kind of instruction collected 
by the housekeeper for the operation of the average home, one 
sees perhaps a receipt book, or two. Some ancient family rec- 
ords of the works of mother, or grandmother. A few scraps 
of papers gathered together, the copied rules of some especially 
good muffins, cake, croquettes, or salad, enjoyed in the house 
of a friend, or neighbor, who had perchance been particularly 
successful each in her way. A drawer of old patterns that 
cannot possibly be used again, because of the change of fashion, 
or of outgrowing that sort of thing. One or more designs for 
an embroidered doily, or lamp shade, some tonic, or lotion for- 
mulas, a few indiscriminate clippings and ladies' Home Jour- 
nals. Some directions for special emergencies, and a plan or 
two tucked away somewhere for the remodeling of the kitchen, 
or the addition of another bath room — found, however, to be 
too expensive at the time when the carpenter reported upon it, 
and so awaiting the coming of the "Ship." 

And this is neither overdrawn, nor surprising, for almost all 
housekeeping Instructions, up to a very few years ago, have 
come down to us by word of mouth through the traditions of 
each family. One showing another, by reason of the act being 
done in the presence of all; the standard being — "the way we 
like it" — and a right good standard that, in some cases, but 
how easy it is to learn to dislike what one has discovered to be 
less than the best, and to like with an added virtue, the thing 
proved to be the finest known. 

Until very lately no factory, shop, or any unprofessional en- 
terprise was expected to carry its own Instruction Bureau. 

80 



THE INSTRUCTION BUREAU 

A library in the lawyer's office, or minister's study, became an 
accustomed necessity for the ready reference of the client, or 
student, but when it came to the various industries, each work- 
man was supposed to learn by experience and the watching of 
another more skilled than himself. Excellent methods as far 
as they go, but how much better it is to have all the available 
information of the country sifted, classified, condensed and 
ready at hand, from which to draw at a moment's notice; to- 
gether with experience and the right sort of teaching. The 
first essential being of course the standardizing, or estimate of 
one's subject, when it becomes a very simple matter to grad- 
ually collect information adapted to one's degree of skill in its 
use. In fact when one has a definite standard of work in mind, 
all sorts of information seem to gravitate toward one; often 
from the most unexpected sources. 

The writer has for a long time found it useful to have a 
small pad and pencil attached to the head of the bed, upon 
which to note any questions, ideas, or facts that might occur 
to her after the day is over, and just before sleep; a most 
fertile time for suggestion, making ready for the next day's 
Planning and Dispatching. Lately she has extended the idea 
all through the house. An attractive little pad and pencil 
attached, is hung in an obscure spot in every room, including 
one at the front door and the telephone, as well as one about 
her own neck. These are ever ready for any variety of instruc- 
tion verbally, or casually occurring. Books to buy, music worth 
hearing, authorities to investigate, notes for reference, and facts 
and suggestions upon every conceivable side of the home and 
its parts. From time to time the slips are classified, discarded, 
indexed, etc., the results entering more or less permanently into 
the general Bureau, which in this case is merely a flat-top desk 
with spacious drawers, standing in the office of the house. Here 
all kinds of information are to be found, or referred to in its 
more convenient place. Records, papers, receipts, bills, dates, 
patterns, designs, plans, notes of purchases. The what, why, 
how and when of things. The sizes and prices of garments for 
each member of the family, and the variety of instruction 
needed in the professionalizing and Scientific Management of 

81 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

the entire home. The records, slips and bills of articles as they 
enter the house, at the receiving station, are from time to time 
collected and classified. Notes of experiments carried on, or 
tests made in method and machinery, are here listed. The 
Central card index of all the branch indexes of the house, the 
account of stores and material on hand, and the condition of 
the various departments, are made known, and immediate, re- 
liable and accurate records are ever in readiness. A veritable 
reservoir of perpetual education in all home-making subjects, 
condensed into the smallest of space, but flexible in its branches. 
The real material for Instruction being found in most cases in 
the department in which it is oftenest needed in actual use. Quite 
a little library has already been assembled in the Kitchen and 
Laundry, and also in the Medicine Closet; dainty little shelves 
having been arranged appropriately for each. 

While so far it is but a beginning of the Efficient way, it 
has already proved itself a time, money, and strength saver 
when once in operation. It gives a certain air of security ; a 
feeling of satisfaction in being up to time and knowing just 
where one stands, an alert and thoughtful attitude toward one's 
responsibilities, and becomes a most effective and convenient 
way of keeping one's self up to date in household matters, a 
ready reference of the best known ways — for there is but one best 
way in the doing of everything — a little center, starting from 
but a lead-pencil and an idea and branching in close and fine 
relation to every department of the house, and from thence 
reaching out and gathering in for one's use, the results of the 
Universe, a source of instruction to which one adds and from 
which one takes, as occasion suggests, until the housekeeper 
feels as the literary man in his library, — 

"Where all round the room, 
The silent servants wait; 
His friends in every season bright and dim." 

For if education is the development of the entire man, then 
surely it should not stop at any period, or subject, but be car- 
ried through the occupation of one's entire life. With but the 

82 



THE INSTRUCTION BUREAU 

right vision, one's capacity for instruction will grow with the 
years. Instead, however, of going to school, one may in this 
way create one's own school at home, for as Carlyle says : "The 
true University these days is a collection of books." 



83 



CHAPTER IX 

HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS, AND DEVICES 

"There are tools to work withal, for those who will" 

While the tools with which and through which work is accom- 
plished, should be estimated and recognized as essential to the 
right kind of results, they are in truth of secondary importance 
compared with the motives, the ideals, or ideas, the knowledge, 
skill and productive ability of the workman himself, which is 
the first and should be always the controlling factor. 

To say that all homes, under all conditions, should be im- 
mediately equipped with the most modem up-to-date ma- 
chinery — because machinery is a wise substitute for hand 
labor — would be to declare social and economic havoc. Why.'' 
Because just as the machinery and equipment of our own 
bodies, hands, feet, arms, head, etc., have developed through a 
strong human desire and ability for advancement, preserva- 
tion, and larger powers of expression, and come into being 
through slow and persistent effort in these directions, deter- 
mined and acquired only by our need of a higher conception of 
life, not merely wished into place haphazard like, so the instru- 
ments and organs, or the equipment through which a more 
perfect expression of the home may be realized, should be 
carefully studied and desired from the standpoint of their value 
in making possible a higher and more sympathetically developed 
social unit, proving itself in a more efficient institution for the 
production and maintenance of better citizens. 

Any and all machinery that can be made to best further 
this end, is not only worth desiring, but it becomes the duty of 
the individual and society to see to it that such desire be en- 
couraged to the point of properly incorporating every device 
known to us, that can be made to advance the standard of the 
household. Merely getting the work done, or modernizing 
the external of one's surroundings, is not sufficient reason for 

84 



HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS, DEVICES 

the owning of machinery. It should preserve and improve the 
quality of the work, be an inspiration for greater achievement, 
and add materially to the well-being of the family. This it 
can only accomplish through proper kind of ownership. 

Efficiency, Health or Well-being, and Beauty are the three 
elements that prove the proper quality of an industry, and, 
while home-making is without doubt the most universal industry 
of the world, what percentage of homes are at their maximum 
quality.'* We fear but a small number, and we may look for 
the reason not so much in the lack of equipment, as in the 
average home-maker's estimate of her own industry. She con- 
ceives it not from a creative, organized, and poetic standpoint, 
but rather from that of following an instinct and a world- 
custom, with its routine of mechanical activities, returning 
some pleasure of course, but largely resting on the necessity of 
drudgery, and dependent upon the most prosy externalities, 
with hardly a thought of their inner meaning. With such an 
attitude one will accomplish little, even with the finest of tools, 
that would justify the owning of the implements. If, on the 
other hand, home-makers can be made to realize that the most 
common-place duties in life are capable of being made fine, 
developed into operations of intense interest, and used to blaze 
the way toward a higher form of personality, such an one should 
be encouraged to use every tool available in the carrying out 
of her profession, and the building of a home that would stand 
for something definite in the community. 

At the Housekeeping Experiment Station we were constantly 
asked: "Would you advise me to buy tliis?" and "Would you 
advise me to buy that.?" To which we would have to reply: 
"If your conditions are right. Yes ; if not, wait until they are." 
"Study yourself and your surroundings closely before adding 
to your burden," because everything one owns is more or less 
of a burden and responsibility. This would often deter the one 
who was inclined to want everything she saw, and was not, 
according to commercial view — good business — but our work 
is not, and has not been, the selling of goods ; rather the sugges- 
tion of a higher standard of housework, and in this the right 
conditions play a much larger part than the right tools, in fact 

85 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

such conditions demand efficient tools. It no longer is a ques- 
tion in the mind. You must have them. 

Now what are the most efficient tools for housework? 
Surely those that are constructed on the very best mechanical 
principle. They should be strong, durable, simple, well-made, 
and beautiful. Be able to do the work as defined by the best 
known standard. Reflect a beneficial effect upon the operator, 
and be produced by a manufacturer who stands back of his 
goods with an honest, reliable, scientific and progressive atti- 
tude. In these days of sharp competition and wanting every- 
thing for nothing, this may seem over-much to expect of the 
business world, but in reality there are many such manufac- 
turers, only too ready to do their utmost to produce the best 
possible tool under the best possible conditions. Up to three 
years ago, however, there were very few what might be called 
high-priced men giving their business attention and inventive 
ability to housework machinery, but this branch of industry is 
now growing rapidly and bids fair to catch up with other and 
more fertile fields of production, provided there be the intelli- 
gent demand on the part of the housewife. In a large and 
social way that would not apply to all individuals, but to the 
general whole; the servant in the house is the obstacle in the 
way of a proper and educated demand for machinery. As a 
rule, the finest and most expensive equipment is not safe in the 
hands of the average servant. First, because it needs a sensi- 
tive and thoughtful operator to get the best results. Second, 
because by virtue of her being a servant, she has probably little 
initiative, and therefore prefers the old way, for it requires 
considerable mental effort to change one's habits and methods. 
And thirdly, there is little encouragement to buy good tools, 
unless they bring a return in satisfaction and are made to pay 
for themselves. Where there are servants, the return is too 
often a loss, through accident, neglect, or waste. To get the 
most out of a machine, one must have the most in one's self, 
and while the average servant is not the best type of mechanical 
operator, what we call the "Servant Problem," or the scarcity 
of this class, is one of the most encouraging features to the 
manufacturers who have before them as a vision of household 

86 



HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS, DEVICES 

need, nothing short of the automatic, mechanical servant that 
will, as far as possible, replace the human domestic. You will 
question: Is this progress? We believe it is, for the reason 
that it is meeting a necessity, and because, while we may sac- 
rifice many of the little personal delights in having the right 
sort of maid at our beck and call, the social independence which 
would result to both sides, would more than balance this mere 
sense of comfort, and the fact is, there are too few of the "right 
sort" to supply the demand. Again the tendency to specializa- 
tion, makes the task of management a psychological, as well as 
an economic problem. 

As an example, and at the risk of emphasizing the personal, 
let me tell the reader how equipment, utensils, and devices came 
into prominence in the writer's case. 

The time came when I had to choose between practically all 
my allowance being absorbed in wages and the running of a 
house that at least required three servants for its simplest up- 
keep : a laundress and cook, a waitress and chambermaid, and 
a nurse and seamstress, to meet the demands of a family of five. 
This in turn absorbed if not all of my time, the greater part 
of it, and most of my energy, leaving but slender resources with 
which to build up any individual, or family life that was worth 
while. The alternative being to make over the house, family 
and methods so that strength, money, and time would be con- 
served, and by so doing meet and solve, if possible, the so-called 
"Servant Problem," from an individual, as well as a social 
standpoint. I chose the latter, but was very still about it; not 
even the family were conscious of what was happening. My 
excuse for having no "help" being that I could not get the 
right kind, — a truth — and that I wanted to catch up with back 
debts, — another truth. But all the time I was studying like a 
student preparing for an examination. Day and night I was 
carrying the problem around in my head, wondering how best 
to simplify and organize the home so that the least would be 
sacrificed and we could continue mdef,nitely sans domestique. 
I anal3^zed the various departments of the work, and the neces- 
sary duties of each, such as the laundry, the cooking, the 
cleaning, and serving, and experimented with methods for each. 

87 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

I searched for the best devices with which to accomphsh the 
desired results, and abandoned many that I found were in my 
possession, such as heavy iron pots, hard-to-clean pans, and in 
short every unnecessary article. Within six weeks I made my 
first real purchase for the new system, — a general utility family 
motor, which we soon nicknamed "James, the Great." He 
ground the coffee, cleaned the silver, made the bread and cake, 
washed, wrung and mangled the clothes, grated the cheese, 
chocolate and cocoanut, sharpened the knives, beat the eggs, 
made the ice-cream, and in fact did, or could do anything and 
everything requiring strength and time in the turning, and had 
the advantage over the other motors on the market, in that 
any size utility could be used, and special ones did not have 
to be purchased. Any mechanic, by the mere introduction of a 
pin through the rod, could make the proper connection, and 
"James" was easily moved about the Kitchen from place to 
place, carrying out a general housework program at almost 
no waste of strength and at a minimum cost of a cent and a 
half an hour for labor. He was at the same time, supposed to 
run the vacuum cleaner, but this was never a success ; the dis- 
tance was too great from the Kitchen and the cleaner was of a 
noisy and inefficient type. This then became my second object 
of research, and the instrument around which I might say, I 
began my "mechanical" training. There were a bewildering 
number of them on the market; a veritable mushroom growth 
that has hardly yet ceased to produce its kind, constructed 
upon every known principle, good and bad, and backed by all 
kinds and types of people. Everything was on exhibition, 
from the tiny hand toy of a few dollars, to the elaborately in- 
stalled and stationary plant. Clearly the only way to know 
which was which, was to find out for myself through internal 
investigation. This I proceeded to do ; first, by eliminating the 
high-power stationary machine, for this reason — except in 
unusual cases, the portable machine will do just as good work, 
with less danger of getting out of order, and at much less cost 
of money and muscle, for without frequent outlets, which make 
for expense, a long hose is a tiresome tool to handle for any 
length of time. Of the portable types, the electric is to be 

88 



HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS, DEVICES 

preferred, although there are one or two hand machines that 
might be mentioned as worth while. After serious considera- 
tion, all machines of the hose and nozzle type were eliminated 
in favor of the brush plan, and while my first purchase was 
"The Peerless," — one of the Duntley type — I afterward ex- 
changed it for a "Hoover," which is an easy running, easily 
handled, beautifully constructed device having a fairly high 
speed motor with all the power that is safe to use upon any 
good rugs ; comparatively noiseless, with a large compartment 
for the dirt, and a soft generous brush motion that practically 
keeps the floors speckless at minimum cost, time and strength. 
The secret of keeping a house clean, I found to be, in seeing to 
it that the floors are dustless. The dust that settles on the 
furniture is not to be compared with the dust that is ever ready 
on the floor to be stirred up and distributed by every passerby. 
Oftentimes the floor that looks clean is the real cause of much 
unnecessary housework and disease ; and at the same time the 
hidden dirt and grit is mischievously disintegrating the very 
warp and woof of the floor covering. 

The third purchase, and to me the most significant and 
fundamental device in the new system of housekeeping, was the 
Fireless Cooker. While this did not begin to be the confusing 
study that the Vacuum Cleaner proved itself, it was surprising 
to see how many varieties of ways there were in which manu- 
facturers had worked out the practical and simple principle of 
cooking by the conservation of heat and steam. Boxes and 
pails made of every sort of metal and wood, interlined with 
materials good and bad, from sawdust and newspaper to mineral 
wool and asbestos, costing all sorts of prices and varying widely 
in efficiency. Practically all fireless cookers will cook. They 
difl'er, however, in the time and quality of the cooking, in odor 
and dampness, and in durability. Soapstone plates are to be 
preferred, except for the fact that they will, upon rare oc- 
casions, explode, which makes me prefer the metal, to which 
there is little objection if they be kept well painted with alumi- 
num. As metal is a conductor of heat, fireless cookers should 
be built with an outer surface of wood. The interlining should 
be of the finest mixture of heat-conserving materials, and the 

S9 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

inner lining of the very best of heavy pure aluminum. It should 
have the closest connections compatible with safety, such as is 
found in the water seal cover of the "Ideal," with the escape 
valve. It should be as simple as possible in its parts, and al- 
ways be used in conjunction with a thermometer. The fireless 
cooker has done, and will do, more toward revolutionizing our 
method of home-cooking, and therefore our method of house- 
work, than any invention since the time of the coal stove. In 
fact, we know nothing to be compared to it, for the principle 
of the conservation of heat and steam — as old as the world, but 
new in its adaptation, — has within it the suggestion of no 
kitchen at all, no unpleasant odors and smoke, no unsightly 
pots and pans, no haste and confusion, no burning and scorch- 
ing, and furthermore, of proving to the world that civilized 
man can live without cooks. 

The primitive tripod in equipment, upon which housework 
has rested for so long, has been the broom, the coal stove and 
the wash board, but little imagination is required to picture an 
era of marvelous difference, when instead of scattering the dust 
by an unhealthy bodily motion through the house and into the 
lungs of the inmates, making it necessary to add to the work 
of the laundry, to more frequently wash the windows, to move 
heavy furniture, and to do it all over again the next day, the 
dust is merely sucked away by a safe and sane process, easy 
and graceful in motion, and suitable to be done at any time. 
As per example : I cleaned the seven rugs of the front hall, not 
long ago, while gloved and dressed for a reception. 

A washing of ample proportion can be done with the turn 
of a button, practically not wetting one's hands, or spattering 
a drop of water: the effort of hanging up the clothes being 
perhaps the greatest one, but what sensible and appreciative 
woman should object to the healthy and exhilarating exercise 
of properly reaching up to place in the fresh, delightful air 
of Heaven, the newly washed and sweet smelling clothes of her 
own household, — a charming study in motion when properly 
performed. 

Coming back to the fireless cooker in the picture, we see 
placed in front of it a Turkish rug of exquisite tone, spotless 

90 



HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS, DEVICES 

even though it has been there a number of years. On top of 
the cooker is a vase of flowers, and no sign of labor, or atten- 
tion, being required, save for the tell-tale silken cord that con- 
nects with the button near the window. 

These things are fundamental. They herald a time that is 
to be, when domestic life shall be joyous and free, and the 
common-place duties feats of beauty. 

And now let us pass rapidly over some other articles of 
equipment which although they be perhaps not quite so near 
the base of things, are nevertheless just as important in the 
scheme for higher standards, in that they make practicable a 
complete plan for betterment, and are in themselves excellent 
devices. 

First, the household Incinerite, that proves it possible to 
live in a house where there is no garbage. While this utility 
has a purchase price higher than seems justified, it will pay for 
itself in time, if the disposal of garbage costs anything, and 
of course it does. In my own case, the time involved in its 
disposal from the sink to the burying place was an item. The 
consuming of it right near the sink, at the cost of four cents a 
bushel, with no heat or odor, and almost no ash, makes all 
thought of the garbage pail a thing of the past, and the 
kitchen sink no more unattractive than would be a marble 
basin or fountain. It may be argued that the destruction of 
garbage is a waste, but until we know what better to do with it, 
it is assuredly to be preferred to the demoralizing influence of 
messy and unappetizing mixtures about. 

For the preparation of vegetables, there are a number of 
devices that really pay when properly used. A potato peeler 
costing $8 does the work very well indeed, although I do not 
own one of these and have only watched it in operation. A 
bean cutter, at $2, is easily made to slit a pound of small 
green beans in two and a half minutes, run by hand, and a 
shorter time when connected with "James," a form of prepar- 
ing this legume that would take at least twenty minutes by 
hand. Other vegetable cutters, the pea sheller, the raisin and 
cherry stoner, the puree strainer, the nut-crackers, the apple 
peelers, and the egg cutters, are all worth investigating and 

91 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

purchasing when one is quite convinced that they are going to 
be used often enough to pay for themselves. 

The Silver-Clean pan I have found of the greatest assist- 
ance in conjunction with a buffer, making it possible to clean 
even the most difficult and complicated pieces in not only sur- 
prisingly short time, but with no flying of powder, tiring of 
arms, or blackening of fingers. 

A mangle I also found paid for itself, not only because it 
saves fully 50 per cent, in time, as compared with a hand iron, 
but for the reason that it is much less tiring in the motions 
required, and also to the hand that lifts the iron. As to the 
latter, the gas and electric irons are wonderful aids in that one 
need not stand to press, in order to add efficiency by the 
weight of one's body, to the fast cooling flat iron removed from 
its source of heat. The even supply at the very place of use, 
makes it possible to iron in a sitting position with board, chair, 
etc., comfortably adjusted to one's height and easiest point 
of motion. 

Perhaps the most interesting piece of housework equipment, 
or device, that has come to my knowledge, is the electric dish- 
washing machine. This is a simply constructed, very good- 
looking piece of furniture, permanently installed only to the 
extent of being connected with the supply of gas, water, and 
electric power. With the very minimum of boiling water, — 
not more than two gallons — it sterilizes and washes about 
seventy pieces of china and glass, and fifty or more pieces of 
silver at one time. All this, in less than ten minutes from the 
placing of them in the box, and without touching so much as 
a finger to the dish-water during the whole most dainty and 
delicate operation. It is all so simple and yet so ingenious 
that one marvels why it has never been done before, and as 
the new consciousness of scientifically washing dishes is de- 
veloped from day to day, the wonder grows that women have 
for so long been slaves to the old method of dishpans, cloths, 
mops, towels, and all the other unsanitary and unhygienic 
means. 

The Dining-Room was one of the hardest problems. How 
to serve the family in a comfortable and aesthetic manner, with- 

92 



HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS, DEVICES 

out rising from the table, over-crowding the dishes, or making 
it necessary to constantly pass the foods, seemed to consume all 
my powers of thought for some time, and finally the answer 
came through adapting two old devices and reforming them 
for modern use. One, a revolving tray in the center of the 
table, which we named the "Table Butler," capable of holding 
each course, and moving near enough to each plate to establish 
a very comfortable and independent feeling. The other proved 
to be the original dumb-waiter of more than a century ago, 
adjusted to five disks instead of three, and mounted upon the 
most sensitive and easily manipulated wheels, responding in- 
stantly to the slightest touch. This we called the "Dumb-But- 
ler," moving "him" from the pantry where "he" is at least par- 
tially filled, to a position at the hostess' left, in which "he" 
occupies a negligible place as far as the table space is concerned, 
and holds in square inch capacity and in orderly routine, just 
twice as much as the largest double-shelved English Tea-Cart. 
This combination has solved the problem. We have eliminated 
the servant in the room ; the need of considering "those who are 
to eat after" ; and the uncertainty of knowing how and in what 
form the next course will appear, and it is truly but little more 
work for the hostess than all the things summed up that are 
liable to be a part of the more conventional method. 

Our object in the Housekeeping Station was not to exploit 
any individual method, or opinion of my own, but to prove 
through demonstration and illustration, that the same System 
that is applicable to the most productive of modern industries, 
is equally related to the needs of the home, and is capable of 
even a higher and more feminine interpretation and transla- 
tion : Standard Equipment, Standard Conditions, and Standard 
Operations being the basis of that all-important element — the 
elimination of waste, — and thereby the conservation of the home 
in its best form. Such standards are not arrived at except 
through careful study, comparative experiments, and general 
education, for we mean by such terms nothing short of the 
most approved scientific methods known, and the cultivation of 
one's self not only to the appreciation of their value, but to the 
proper skill and adeptness in their use. In other words, the 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

conditions must not only fit the person, but to gain any real 
results, the person must be trained to fit the standards. Merely 
to own the materials, is to burden one's self with expense, con- 
fusion, and danger, but to desire the tools in order to produce 
higher and more effective results, and to be able to relate them, 
incorporate them, and properly handle them in one's domestic 
career, is to add not only a world of interest to the day's routine, 
but to avoid the danger of disappointment and extravagance, 
so often accompanying investments unintelligently entered upon. 

While our decisions at the Station as to equipment, utensils, 
devices, and all the rest of it, are necessarily temporary and 
transient, for better things may be developed to-morrow in 
every line, their significance rests only upon the fact that they 
are based upon a scientific and professional theory of the rapid 
evolution of housework, the practical doing away with the 
drudgery point of view, and the belief that stultifying and 
unpleasant conditions must forever abide in the round of home 
duties. 

We have kept apace with inventions and improvements, dis- 
carding each as something better came into view, with the con- 
viction that what is really needed by the average home-maker 
is not so much these added possessions, as the feeling of faith 
and hope in a domestic future. This may be attained for the 
wanting through the adjustment of herself to advancing modem 
economic utilities. There are numberless articles upon the 
market, well-made and suitable to certain conditions. Our idea 
was to choose one representing the best class of each in its line, 
proving the System thereby, and not simply the exploiting of 
novelties, or the insistence upon any special make. The small 
refrigerator plant, or ice machine, is coming. We already have 
a number from which to choose, but up to date we cannot fit 
them in practically to the average home with the assurance of 
economy; although "The Montclair" and the "Automatic 
Household Refrigerator" seem to be the answer to this need. 
Both are worthy of investigation. 

Hot Water Heaters are numerous, and nothing so far we 
believe can give greater comfort than the class of which the 
Ruud is an example, if properly used, the burners cleaned oc- 

94 



HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS, DEVICES 

casionally and the hot water not wasted. For actual economy 
in money, no method of heating water has been devised that is 
to be compared with the tea kettle, or tank, over a properly 
regulated flame, together with a boiler connected with the 
furnace during more than half the year. The thermostat, ther- 
mometer, and regitherm should have a word in passing, for 
they deserve to be more generally used throughout the house- 
hold temperature conditions, and lastly, a Avord for the electric 
floor polisher and scrubbing machine, for it is most efficient and 
eff'ective, "doing over," as we say, old floors and rewaxing, 
cleaning and polishing the newer ones. While any woman can 
readily operate this machine, it is more suited perhaps to the 
disposition and skill of a man. However, not having one handy, 
should not prevent the floor having a refinish should it require 
such treatment. The elevator ice-box or cupboard is also an 
ingenious device, serving as a wine closet, a fuel or refreshment 
lift, or an extra storage space when one prefers. 

A little window-washing machine is now a subject of investi- 
gation. This consists of a tiny motor, a flexible shaft, and a 
revolving pad. It, however, does not yet successfully work in 
the comers. Here we watch and wait. 

But the list of realities and possibilities in household equip- 
ment is as long as the demand, the quality in exact proportion 
to the kind of demand, and the progress will be as rapid as 
proper education can be made to open the way. Equipment, 
and all it stands for, is worthy the most profound study. The 
process of adequately equipping one's self for service is in pro- 
portion to the standard of service desired. The apparatus is 
involved in, and second only, to one's ideals in operation. 
Proper utensils should be ever at hand with which best to 
succeed, and newer and newer devices of finer and finer excellence 
must be the result of our determined and united demand — ^for — 
what we believe to be — the Practical Solution of the present 
Servant Problem. 



95 



CHAPTER X 

THE ELIMINATION OF DRUDGERY 

"The discontent with the work you are compelled to do, comes from 
doing it in the spirit of a drudge " 

"Thou God, hast given all good things to man at the price of 

labor " 

"Housework is drudgery," or so it has been generally de- 
clared and with such an air of finality by supposedly thought- 
ful men and women everywhere, that the world has become 
impressed and hypnotized with what might be called the mere 
ghost of a truth. The fact being that the sense of drudgery 
does not exist where there is a creative and properly motivated 
attitude. The humbler and less interesting tasks are done with 
a buoyancy that foretells a living result. All the dreary rou- 
tine performed for routine's sake, the mechanical results, the 
lack of initiation, and the motiveless and inert manner of the 
worker are as the phantom effort of the Godless man. There 
are two kinds of drudgery that stand out very clearly in our 
minds, although we find but one root for these twin branches. 
First: the constant performance of servile labor that makes one 
feel as a slave. And Second: the necessity of toiling at some- 
thing in which the heart does not enter. Both, however, spring 
from a common meaning of dragging, putting, or drawing one's 
self together, in order to perform a grim task ; therefore we say 
the element of drudgery is of the mind as well as of the body, 
and is the direct result of doing work in an uninterested, me- 
chanical, or spiritless manner. The remedy being to cut down 
the daily demands upon the worker, to a place where body and 
mind can effectively co-operate, and where the spirit is prop- 
erly animated through a better understanding of the true and 
essential and through the freeing of itself from the burdens, of 
the purely conventional and non-essential. In most cases one 
acquires the feeling of a drudge not because of over-work, 
heavy, hard, or menial labor, but rather for the want of a right 

96 



THE ELIMINATION OF DRUDGERY 

sense of the meaning and importance of the less interesting tasks 
and the conditions and surroundings under which they are per- 
formed. 

It is perfectly possible to take the crudest and most primi- 
tive of occupations and perform them with the attitude of a 
scientist, that is, note all the facts, study the parts, relate them 
to the whole, and cultivate the standard. As for instance: the 
writer became interested to know how best to lift heavy weights, 
so as to profit rather than suffer from the result, and among 
other things took care of the furnace for a number of months 
in succession. The putting in of coal, the shaking, and the 
taking out of ashes became an exercise in physical training. 
One that returned in good vitaHty, all that it took in energy. 
Besides developing a certain masterful feeling in understanding 
the science of lifting weights. It was a regular and uniform 
effort of the body and mind for each day. A fairly good-sized 
shovel of coal was found to weigh twenty pounds, and it became 
a point of interest to try to feel just that amount, no more and 
no less, at each lift. The number of shovels used a day was 
listed upon a wall pad, which determined not only how long a 
ton lasted, but approximately whether it had been honest weight. 
Incidentally another way to check up the coal dealer was to 
mark the bin at the point of the proper measure, in lieu of 
appropriate scales. The walk from where the fuel was stored, 
to the furnace, was the shortest possible distance, just long 
enough to note the foot pounds and the manner of moving under 
a load, and to get a balance that was right for the aim, the swing, 
and the proper guiding of the shovel through a door little wider 
than itself, that the coal may be evenly distributed over the 
whole bed. Precision, concentration, and rhythm were all essen- 
tial elements. To lift even twenty pounds repeatedly and not 
have it a fatiguing operation, it is necessary to make the effort 
from the entire body, centering the force of the feeling, however, 
in the feet. Not with a spreading and heavy sensation, but 
rather with a springiness from the ball and great toe. A lift- 
ing from the inside of the forward part of the foot, while ex- 
panding the lungs so as to fill the body with air before each 
effort, a precaution that makes it both safe and profitable to 

97 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

raise and carry a heavier load than has seemed suitable to the 
average woman. The limit being one's inability to so evenly 
distribute the weight as to make of the entire body a flexible, 
animated lever, braced only from the inner side of the great 
toe. When the strain is allowed to center in the back, the arms, 
chest, or abdomen, the risk becomes too great for safety, and 
instead of such effort accumulating strength, it is inclined to 
break down the tissues about the place of contraction. The 
woman who carries the great bundle on her head, adds to her 
strength and endurance by virtue of the even bodily effort 
centered in the feet of necessity that the balance be sustained. 
The uncultivated act differs, however, from the cultivated, in 
the fact that the peasant woman generally centers all strain 
upon the heel and spine, while the educated body shifts the 
weight to a triune basis. The toe as the bracer, the diaphragm 
and spine together the support. And so one might note and 
study all sorts of facts and useful results even in the shovelling 
of coal. The example and suggestion of the care of the fur- 
nace is given merely to show that the crudest, commonest and 
most physical of tasks may be entirely taken out of the realm 
of drudgery and made to return cultural profit simply by the 
introduction of a little thought and doing the thing from an 
analytic and synthetic basis, raising the standard of one's 
motive from that of a bare driving necessity to get the work 
done, to the ideal of making every task, no matter how uncon- 
genial in the beginning, give a return of profit and pleasure by 
relating it in whole and in part to the highest conception of the 
object of its performance. This result is in direct proportion 
to the quality of thought and action used. 

We have for so long had such a false notion of the place and 
value of physical work, we have separated the mind from labor, 
even to the point of imagining one could think one's way 
through life, believing such an intellectual conception superior 
to the use of one's two hands. But the more widely thoughtful 
man and woman knows perfectly well that the trained intellect 
must react upon bodily effort, if one would avoid anemic and 
unhealthy mentality. It almost seems as if the whole people 
were busy trying to rise above work in order to realize a higher 

98 



THE ELIMINATION OF DRUDGERY 

culture, drudgingly doing what must be, in order to get rid of 
doing it, and by shifting the burden upon somebody else less 
able to carry the load. The desire for pleasure is rampant. 
*'Eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow we die," is the motto 
of many an otherwise sensible person, even though it is known 
that one cannot find any permanent merriness in mere eating 
and drinking, and it is not thinkable that life is so transient 
that we can die to-morrow, for though we pass from this sphere, 
we must take with us the results of a personality builded here, 
which is after all the only thing worth having, that is really 
one's own. Such a personality is the result of the combined 
and active powers of the individual through and in some par- 
ticular kind of work. 

Therefore, while it is a truth that most of us are having too 
little real pleasure, and very much too little leisure, it is a 
fact that these essential elements to well-being, can be best and 
oftenest provided by arriving at them through one's daily occu- 
pations and permanent environment. To force one's self to do 
six days in the week what is felt to be drudgery, and then to 
cut loose on the seventh and follow that phantom of temporary 
pleasure, only to return and drive for another six, is giving 
drudgery the upper hand in its effect, ultimately to end in 
disaster, or an abnormal craving for more artificial pleasure in 
order to strike a balance. Is it not healthier, wiser, and more 
effective to eliminate the sense of drudgery, and unpleasantness 
in work, by teaching and demonstrating the scientific way of 
doing everything? By applying the system of efficiency to the 
end that the crudest of tasks may be an education to the worker, 
lifting him with the help of his own encouraged initiation, to not 
only higher earning capacity, but greater appreciation and 
buoyancy.'' There is joy in accomplishment, more joy in prog- 
ress, and most joy in accumulating possessions. Not those, how- 
ever, of a temporary and material kind, but rather the possession 
of a talent well developed, of a capacity to enjoy and sympa- 
thize with, of knowledge to do and to be one's best, and the accu- 
mulation of a store of good things to give, that can only be the 
result of experiences used wisely. Such possessions cannot 
come through the limited effort of buying, or thinking them into 

place. gg 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

A spiritless toiler is a deadly and pathetic spectacle. "The 
Man with the Hoe" is akin to "The Girl in the Kitchen." Each 
unconscious of the great service in wliich they lead, ignorant 
of its meaning to themselves and to their fellow beings ; moved 
by the common thought that theirs is a lot of drudgery from 
which there is no escape. But surely it cannot be that a Power 
that has builded this beautiful World, has made human beings 
who must forever toil and drudge for a mere and meager exist- 
ence. We know it cannot be, and that nothing but our blind- 
ness has ever made it so appear. 

Education should give us a wider outlook in our daily tasks. 
With a strong enough reason for doing, the ways and means 
become a pleasure in performance. There is no longer "just so 
much drudgery to be gone through with," in order to finally 
"arrive." The "arriving" is all along the way, because each 
effort is an "arrival" in itself. The every-day exercises, duties 
and cares, which we are wont to look upon as drudgery, are 
well called "the weights and counterpoises of the clock of time, 
giving its pendulum a true vibration and its hands a regular 
motion, and when they cease to hang upon the wheels, the pendu- 
lum no longer swings, the hands no longer move, the clock 
stands still." To try to avoid these, or to force one's self 
through them, in order to play to-morrow, shows a lack of 
appreciation of their real place in the purpose of life. Far 
more enlightened is the attitude that turns and faces what 
would be drudgery, with the conviction that each and every task 
can give in return much that is instructive and pleasant if the 
worker will but become responsive and lend himself to the study 
of what it would teach. There is pleasure in the doing of a 
thing with one's entire self, but when only a few muscles, or a 
single faculty is used, at the expense of others, it enters very 
near the portals of pronounced drudgery. The thing to do is 
to so analyze, or have analyzed the work in hand as to preserve 
the essentials, and strip it of everything that needlessly makes 
for slavery of mind, or body. It is unhealthy and degenerating 
to work as a drudge. No one should be immoral enough either 
to do it one's self, or to require another to so work. As far as 
housework is concerned, there are enough machines on the market 

100 



THE ELIMINATION OF DRUDGERY 

to do all the heaviest and most laborious operations, leaving 
time to properly consider and perform the necessary tasks of 
the different departments in their relation to each other, to the 
welfare of the body, and to the home as a whole. No one part 
should absorb the attention to the exclusion of other equally 
important departments. No work should be done in a manner 
that does not add to bodily strength and beauty, and the cre- 
ative atmosphere of the home should at all times be sufficient 
motive for jealously guarding it against any possibility of any 
continued drudgery happening under its roof. 

In the following chapters we will discuss the subject further, 
and in detail. It is sufficient here to merely suggest the impor- 
tance of doing away with an unhealthy and destructive element 
that makes for trouble all along the line. That it can be elimi- 
nated has been proven. It is largely a matter of attitude, edu- 
cation and conviction. The wise man learns most from the 
humblest and simplest of agents ; why should not the wise woman 
reach a height from the humblest and simplest of tasks .f* Like 
many another great step forward, it is so easy, natural, and 
within everybody's reach that we feel it cannot be true, but so 
have been all other real advances. We do so much with no ex- 
cuse save that others do likewise, that when we scientifically 
analyze the work of a home, we find much that is done in a labori- 
ous and spiritless fashion that had better be left undone. This 
higher kind of management would not only help to eliminate 
drudgery, but would give time for the introduction of some 
pleasure, and the planning of right leisure, without which no 
life can grow prosperously. Leisure means proper preparation 
for the next task. It means coming in touch with the inspira- 
tion that makes for better work. It means the raising of stand- 
ards so that every worker can come into his own, and will love 
his work, not simply because he understands it, but because 
through It he feels himself being raised to higher and higher 
levels, and knows that he Is accumulating those results which 
alone are worth the best of one's life and labor, a trained mind 
and body, and a spirit from which one Is ever ready to give 
in abundance. 

Our point Is that these things may be acquired from the 

101 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

commonest of every-day tasks, when those tasks are made to 
give up "all that in them is," and the worker appreciates the 
value of the contact, and what there is to be had for the wanting. 
That "Woman's work is never done," is a kind of accepted 
domestic slavery from which she must, and will be, freed. But 
from which she cannot escape honorably until such time as she 
has put her intelligence, her heart, and her ability into service, 
and shall determine both the amount and the quality of the 
work of her house, for "Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, 
makes that and the action fine." 



102 



CHAPTER XI 



TIME AND MOTION STUDY 



"Let thy motions prove economically productive, sportively free,, 
and pray hug to thy consciousness that great element — Beauty" 

In every motion, whether we will it or not, whether one is 
conscious of it or not, there are to be found three motives that 
influence and encourage continuously the vital construction, or 
the careless destruction of Personality — that wondrously com- 
plex and creative work of art, which Heaven and Earth bids us 
build to its use. 

The motive of accomplishment, or the doing of a thing in the 
most effective way. 

The motive of exhilaration, or the pleasure in action. 

And the motive of Beauty, or the quality of form in use. 

These three natural efforts are ever ready for expression, and 
they act and react upon one at every turn. We may learn through 
intelligent practice to accomplish with greater and greater effi- 
ciency, and more and more directness, until there is developed 
a surprising degree of skill. On the other hand, with little 
thought of how a thing is to be done, merely the controlling 
desire of getting through with the task — whatever it may be — 
not only no particular adeptness is developed, but a certain 
careless and indifferent method, often slow, awkward and untidy, 
leaves its impress forcibly implanted upon both mind and body. 
So also when movement is unnecessarily fatiguing. Perhaps 
fatigue poison in the system is the most insidious of the human 
ailments. Certain it is that when one works continuously with 
little or no pleasure in the doing, ignorant of how best to con- 
serve one's strength, and enjoy each move as it is made in rapid 
succession, through a feeling of right and free action, health 
becomes a most doubtful guarantee. And as for beauty! How 
few, how very few of us begin to realize that the form and 
expression of every motion we make, prints indelibly its perma- 

103 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

nent effect upon the body, making one ugly, stiff, and angular, 
or charming, easy and graceful in proportion and according to 
the kind and quality of each motion made. 

With these facts in mind, Motion Study becomes not only 
an economic necessity for the home, but a technique in bodily 
action, making for physical, mental and spiritual culture, or — 
as we prefer to call it — Personality-culture — the development 
of the entire person. While each of these three sides of motion 
study is an immense and absorbing subject in itself that can 
barely more than be touched upon in a book of this sort, yet each 
is so truly important in our consideration of housework that we 
feel a three-fold light on the subject is essential, even though it 
be but a faint glimmer of the illumination that must come to 
each who will thoughtfully practice with such suggestions, and 
follow the work that has already been done. 

Motion Study, although not mentioned as one of the listed 
principles of Scientific Management, is nevertheless a very large 
part of the whole system. In fact, it is the working element of 
each, and the final test of all, for the economics of an enterprise 
is in the carrying out of an idea, with the material plus the 
labor or action required to make that material give up its 
highest possibilities of usefulness. If we can reduce the number 
of motions in the process, we increase in proportion the value 
of the material. If also these motions can be made to give 
in return, health, strength and beauty to the one performing 
them, motion study becomes the most magnificent tool yet dis- 
covered for the conservation of resources, particularly the re- 
sources of human life, for it is not yet even imagined how much 
time, strength and money is wasted in useless motions. 

Although it is often looked upon by the unthinking as being 
a mere means for "speeding up," modern motion study is rather 
a result of the realization among employers of men, that the 
well-being of their workmen is of first and most vital economic 
value. To "speed" by artificial means, such as a speed-maker, 
or a machine time-grinder, is clearly bad business and results 
in loss to both staff and line. The prosperity of the workmen 
must therefore be carefully considered and every scientific 
means known, used to make him most "fit" for his occupation. 

104 



TIME AND MOTION STUDY 

Motion study became therefore one of these scientific means, and 
while it has always been used in a general way in taking the 
time of a complete operation and noting the movements over 
all, for speed and convenience sake, the analyzing of each piece 
of work into its units, the use of a stop-watch, pedometer, etc., 
and the training for just the right motions at the right speed, 
the organizing of one's surroundings into standardized condi- 
tions, with proper implements and a proper estimate, not only 
of each unit, but of each result desired, and its relation to other 
operations in which it is involved ; this we find is a matter of 
recent scientific application. The purpose being that the best 
conditions for, and the best effect upon the worker may be 
accompaniments in the making of the best article. 

The mere walking about the house in the performance of 
one's tasks is a point worth considering. After many tests with 
the aid of a pedometer, the writer found that she walked indoors 
on an average of seven miles a day, occasionally covering twelve 
or fourteen — with the attention drawn to such steps and the con- 
sciousness of these miles, she has been able to reduce the dis- 
tance considerably. 

With this much of the subject as a background, let us focus 
our attention upon its scientific relation to the performance of 
housework and some of the special features taken from the Ex- 
periment Station in Colonia. 

It has so often been said that housework is made up of 
such a variety of tasks and so dependent upon the personal note 
that few, if any, time and motion studies could be taken in a 
home that would be useful as records or practice-instructions 
for any other class of home. This is not true if we reduce the 
task to be considered to its simplest units. There is but one 
best way of doing everything, just as there is but one best 
reason for its being done. And if it is true, as it is, that men 
have found motion study of the highest value, and Scientific 
Management paying best in repair and special-order shops 
where because of the number of variables, the waste is great- 
est; so women will find that in the home, where the variables 
seem endless, the application of time and motion study will be 
found to be of all places most profitable. 

105 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Time and motion study means trained movement. It means, 
as Frank Gilbreth says — "to find and perpetuate the scheme of 
perfection, by discovering and classifying the best practice, de- 
ducing the laws and applying these laws to standardize practice, 
either for the purpose of increasing output, or decreasing hours 
of labor, or both," and the writer would add, for the making, 
conserving, and developing of personality. 

The first thing in the practice is to provide one's self with 
a stop-watch and a pencil and pad, or chart. No records of 
real value can be taken until one can put the parts of a minute 
together; until the turn of the hand can be made to mean so 
much time and so much value. Take for instance, the simple 
operation of scraping a plate. Try and discover through ex- 
periment in time and motion, the best practice for such a task. 
The result of our work was to find it took about twenty strokes 
with the ordinary dinner knife to scrape an ordinary dinner plate 
ready for the dishwater, and then it was not "standard" clean, 
besides the fatigue, the unnecessary noise, the possible injury 
to the enamel surface, the bad reflex effect upon the worker of 
the inefficient movement, and the time consumed which was esti- 
mated to be a quarter of a minute. The better way being to 
have at hand a plate scraper, a piece of bread, or a small soft 
paper napkin, or doilies, which can be daintily crumpled between 
the fingers of the right hand, lift the plate with the first and 
second fingers and the thumb of the left, and drop what will 
into the garbage receptacle with the first move, then with the 
paper circle the plate with the right hand, from the top guid- 
ing the doily by the wrist around to the top again and down 
the center and off. This method we found to be efficient, noise- 
less and safe, carrying with it an educational value in movement 
and consuming only ^ of a minute per plate, a gain of 
66f per cent., besides having a distinct relation to the kind of 
dishwashing done and the other related standards that have to do 
with staff and line. This we found could be motioned in a 
rhythm of four-four time. 

Again, the simple operation of cutting bread. The usual way 
being to gather the knife, the board and the bread together, 
find perhaps that the knife needs sharpening, step somewhere 

106 



TIME AND MOTION STUDY 

for a stone or proper tool, return to the bread and saw many 
more times than is either good for the hand or the straiglitness 
of the shce. A better way being to have a board, with two 
knives of different sizes encased therein, and a small stone in- 
laid on either side, hung just at the left of the bread box. In 
our case there was made a sliding shelf that pulled out to fit it. 
First motion with the right hand, open the bread box, take out 
bread. Left, pull out shelf, unhook bread board. Right, place 
loaf on board. Left, place hand on loaf. Right, take knife 
from scabbard in board, pass once or twice over stone if neces- 
sary, and cut. The sharper the knife, the easier and fewer 
motions in the cutting, the least crumbs wasted and scattered, 
and — with half an eye — the straighter the slice. This, like the 
plate example, gave back about the same ratio in assets. 

So with every unit of housework. Each thing studied in its 
parts, and a stop-watch used for each part, not once, but over 
and over again, these standardized parts put together, and the 
process of the whole operation rebuilt in the conditions and the 
number and kind of movements required, will prove to be not 
only of the greatest cultural value to the worker, and to house- 
work, but one of the greatest factors in efficient management 
and the economics of time, strength and money. 

While a completed task may differ in the result desired in 
each home, the separate parts, or standard units of these tasks, 
is the same, and these it is that are of universal use as records 
for standard practice. The elimination of waste motions is also 
not only of personal interest, but a matter of standard practice, 
for there is the law of movement that action and reaction are 
equal ; if therefore any action is wasteful, that is not the worst 
of it, one must suffer also from its reaction, for the effect of the 
waste motion is by this law waste nerve. 

Again, the organizing of one's surroundings so that the great- 
est efficiency may result, is an individual and personal matter, 
and yet the law of motion and the principles of Scientific Man- 
agement make much of this as standard practice for all. For 
whatever tasks in the house are to be done, and whatever are 
oftenest repeated, should be so organized as not only to have the 
most perfect form of routing for the material used, but the 

107 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

tools, the proper implements, the right equipment, utensils and 
devices should be as near at the point of need as time and mo- 
tion study can determine is the least waste. 

Kitchen cabinets are suggestive here, and yet at the Experi- 
ment Station we have the belief that a more flexible form of 
organization is for most people to be preferred. To be confined 
to one spot and to certain sizes and shapes, whether the family 
numbers two or twenty-two, is distinctly a disadvantage, al- 
though it is much easier to purchase a cabinet even at an ex- 
pensive price oftentimes, than to think out one's own system of 
routing and organization. In our case certain utensils and 
materials were stored in cupboards, and only those assembled 
that were required for the Season, or the immediate size of the 
family, thus simplifying considerably the cabinet idea, making 
it possible to have a variety of cabinets, as it were, at various 
points, when occasion demanded; a pastry cupboard, a work- 
table, a vegetable shelf, etc. The proper things assembled 
about the place, best suited to the routing for the special work 
to be done. 

In this way it makes it possible to plan each task ahead, from 
the center around which it is assembled; keeping several under 
way at once when advisable. The hand learns just where to 
move in the dispatching of each subject, and the head goes its 
way in planning and co-ordinating the different parts, for they 
should work together by never interfering with each other. In 
the study and practice of time and motion experiments, both 
head and hand should be keenly alive to every phase of detail 
that can be grasped and analyzed ; the head thinking them out, 
and the hand feeling them out through close concentration, but 
when standard units have been accepted, when practice has shown 
the best way, the hand and head should separate somewhat, the 
head looking enough beyond, or ahead of the hand to prop- 
erly plan the next step and do away with that nervous tension 
of trying to plan as one goes, making sudden and jerky deci- 
sions ; the hand becoming more or less motor minded from prac- 
tice, prompted constantly by the sense of feeling, and ready to 
accompany and prompt the head, and follow as it leads. 

There is a certain rhythm suggested in the head and hand 

108 



TIME AND MOTION STUDY 

motion in housework, — which is true of the whole body for that 
matter; — that we could not fail but note in the various tasks 
studied. 

For instance ; in stringing beans, and sh'^lling peas, and pre- 
paring vegetables generally, there were found to be some most 
interesting motions involved. After organizing one's surround- 
ings so that the fewest motions are needed in lifting, preparing 
and depositing the bean and the waste, and doing this from the 
most comfortable position, the process of stringing the bean 
itself was analyzed. Picking it up with the left first finger and 
thumb in such a way as to bring the stem straight in front of 
one and in contact with the right first finger and thumb for dis- 
section, turning it at the end of the string for the other side 
operation, and placing it in a pile ready for cutting, was found 
to be a unit, taking ^-^ of a minute in time, reduce to 4 
simple motions, and having a count or rhythm of common time. 
The shelling of peas, on the other hand, could be done to a count 
of three-four time. Such results as these may sound perhaps 
affected and artificial to the ordinary reader. The musical 
preparation of vegetables does not suggest quite the same per- 
formance as that of the ordinary scullion, but if one stops to 
think of the good old Mammys and Marys whom one remem- 
bers as singing at their work peeling potatoes and apples and 
beating the cake to the tunes of their native land, we cannot 
help but believe that better work was done in that way, and that 
the therapeutic value of music as lately proven, may be ex- 
tended to industrial uses as well. But whether artificial or not, 
this side of time and motion study, and these facts, revealed 
themselves; we were not looking for them, — they just came and 
we noted them. 

So far the illustrations given have been single units of work, 
and the units of those units, but a complete operation is merely 
builded from the process and the time taken for each unit, 
which, assembled together makes the standard practice for each 
piece of work plus a percentage of waste that will be found to 
exist, until there is established a very high "scheme of perfec- 
tion." 

Getting a breakfast, even of a simple sort, is an example of 

109 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

assembled units. The part that requires the longest time for 
preparation should be done first, naturally. In our case it was 
the boiling of the water. The cereal having been placed in the 
electric cooker the night before, needed only to be carried to 
the Dining-Room. The fruit also had but to be taken from 
the ice-box to the table-butler. The table having been partly, 
or entirely laid while washing the dinner dishes the night be- 
fore. The Dining-Room at the Station is kept at an even tem- 
perature by the use of a regitherm, so that one finds it warm 
at any hour determined upon for rising. Therefore the proc- 
ess of making ready the breakfast is to open the door, press the 
electric button, connect the toaster and hot plate, pass to but- 
ler's panty, fill tea-kettle, place on flame, start "James" grind- 
ing coffee and while he is busy, cut bread for toast. Fill cream- 
pitcher from ice-box, take butter, fruit, cream and bread to 
table, return to "James," place pulverized coffee in a chemical 
filter paper, drop filter in glass funnel, and place funnel in ther- 
mos jug, or pitcher. Take kettle of water, coffee and cereal 
to table, place kettle on electric hot plate, and keep at boiling 
temperature if possible, while passing it through the ground 
coffee. The toaster is now hot, make toast as it is needed. After 
these motions were carefully standardized and classified, it was 
found that such a breakfast required less than six minutes for 
preparation, making ready for four people. This of course 
could be added to as numbers and occasion required. Eggs are 
often served from the table stove, and griddle cakes at times 
instead of toast. 

Such an illustration is but suggestive of the minimum-waste- 
law under which to plan and dispatch, — after each unit has been 
carefully studied and each part organized — for easiest and 
quickest results. 

Clearing the meals away and washing the dishes continues 
the study. Making one circuit of the table, placing all dishes 
and silver on the table-butler, using a paper napkin for the 
crumbs, arriving at the dumb-butler, placing all upon his shelves 
and rolling him to the dishwashing machine, there to handle each 
thing in the most rapid and approved way, makes for practice 
and for standards that are not arrived at unfortunately in the 

110 



TIME AND MOTION STUDY 

first few times, but after many, many trials, experiments, time, 
testing, and comparative records, and then are constant subjects 
for betterment. 

Dusting, cleaning, making beds, putting a room in order, 
cutting and arranging flowers, making a pan of muffins, or a 
pie, and in fact anything and everything requiring movement 
and time in the doing, comes under this heading for study and 
practice. 

The natural question of the housewife being of course: Does 
it pay? For answer to this, she has but to turn to the results 
that have followed the work and the books of such men as Fred- 
erick Taylor, Frank Gilbreth, Harrington Emerson, and others. 
While these results are to be found in other industries than the 
home, it should take but a small amount of woman's natural intui- 
tion for her to see that the whole subject of Time and Motion 
Study not only does pay enormously from many sides, but it is 
practically and specially adapted to her kind of variables in 
the work of the house, particularly as it develops a time and mo- 
tion sense in all activity. Making the studies is a long and 
difficult process, but it can be and is, a most interesting one 
when done alone, or in groups. Unit records of work should 
be useful to all as standards ; the combinations for the different 
operations varying as individual desire dictates. Washing, iron- 
ing, cooking, sewing, in fact every department of the home, 
proves itself equally adaptable to this form of study. 

There is nothing in the opinion of the writer that will so 
effectively take that mechanical and tiresome routine sense out 
of housework, and make each daily act a new, live, interesting, 
cultural and creative effort, as to thoroughly comprehend the 
meaning of time and motion study, so that it becomes a 
constant and almost automatic practice, engaging the thought, 
the emotion and the entire body, until one becomes sensitively 
conscious of the power and value of that three-fold motive in 
movement. Accomplishment, Exhilaration, Beauty. The first 
encouraging skill and speed. The second strength and endur- 
ance. The third charm and quality. 



Ill 



CHAPTER XII 

THE REGENEEATION OF THE KITCHEN 

"The mind has no kitchen to do its dirty work in, 
while the parlor remains clean " 

Viewed from one standpoint, the entire home is a Kitchen, 
for the reason that a Kitchen, as we term it, is a place from 
which and in which to furnish food, or refreshment, but as "man 
cannot live by bread alone," so only a small portion of his re- 
freshment, not more than one-fifth of what he requires, enters 
into his make-up through the sense of taste. 

While at first thought we may believe that this part of the 
house supplies but the coarser and more materialistic sub- 
stance, and can therefore well be left to chance, or anyone who 
may prepare it, we very soon realize that the control of the 
finer and most desired elements in life so rests upon the inter- 
relation and interpenetration of matter, and the intelligent use 
we are able to make of it, that the only happy and complete 
evolution of the human being is for him to aspire to the heights 
of his nature by the method of carrying the better part of him- 
self down and through his entire existence, and all that goes 
to make him what he is. 

While it is well to separate the various parts of a subject for 
the process of study, when one would live, one must be keenly 
conscious of the unity of life and how intimately one organ 
affects another. To understand Avhat is meant by the regenera- 
tion of the Kitchen, we must study it from a separate, and 
from an inclusive standpoint in the home. We must touch upon 
its historic significance; its meaning in the past, and its place 
in the present. We must view it from the angle of the universal 
world kitchen, and from the demands for small and particular 
needs. We must understand it not only from its utilitarian po- 
sition, but equally from its efficient, its literary, its aesthetic 
and its poetic possibilities. In short we must feel the meaning 

112 



THE REGENERATION OF THE KITCHEN 

of the modern kitchen everywhere, as one felt the charm of the 
kitchen of old. We must know its purpose, even though we 
neither see it, nor live in it in the familiar fashion of our fore- 
fathers. And let us ask what was the unspeakable charm and 
pleasure one felt in the kitchen of long ago? Was it not a 
delightful and intimate touch that one had with every side of 
the family life? That close administering to all the human 
needs of the early home and its inmates, a family hospitality, 
activity, ease and contentment? There was just as much work 
and quite as much unpleasantness in dirt and anxiety, but 
everybody knew that he must do his share, or the life of the 
whole could not go on, and each one became so skilled in his 
part that the work was a source of interest to all. Warmth 
and comfort was to be found in this portion of the house, not 
because the cooking went on there, but because the means of 
providing these qualities was limited and necessity forced them 
to be valued, just as necessity to meet the demands of our 
present life is forcing us to revalue our source of supply and 
to redetermine our relation to our surroundings. 

The Kitchen of long ago had the same root meaning it has 
to-day — "A place in which to cook, or prepare food," — "To use 
sparingly," and "To add relish to." And yet how varied has 
been the understanding of these three main meanings. 

Cooking is done in order that food may be better assimilated, 
but how often do w^e find it all for naught? Unless the use of 
food in the body be thoroughly comprehended, the amount and 
quality required, as well as the combinations needed, the cook's 
wages and labors will perchance but add to the doctor's bills 
and to the family discomfort. 

Again, how prone we are to consider economy an end, rather 
than the real study of economics. The first interpreted as the 
result of sparing use, and the doing without. The second being 
a proper method of management that makes it possible to ef- 
fectively utilize everything that can be made to enrich one's 
environment. A full return for every investment. 

"To give relish to," is perhaps the most suggestive of the 
three definitions, inasmuch as no food, whether it be for the 
physical, mental, spiritual, or psychic side of man is assimilated 

113 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

to the point of right usefulness unless it arouses the interest of 
the one to be fed. This it does in a constructive way largely 
through the influence of flavor, and in a questionable and de- 
generating fashion by the introduction of factors that but 
stimulate, overseason, and cater unhappily to the appetite. 
We relish food when we are truly hungry, and instinctively 
delight in its nutritive value, and not when it comes to us at 
the wrong time and overpowers, as it were, our sense of desire. 
How many an one we hear tell of eating his "Three square 
meals a day," whatever that means ; simply because the hour 
has arrived and it is set before him. A theory and practice 
that however much it may savor of habit and convenience, hath 
no foundation in nature. 

Reduced to its last analysis, the meaning of the Kitchen is 
the cookstove, and of the cookstove is the fire. Here truly 
begins our investigation of this subject, leading we hope to a 
suggestion of a new order of things just here. 

Fire is the basis of civilization. Its power and its control 
determines man's degree of progress. The common kitchen 
stove, when pictured as the pivot around which a people re- 
volve and live, becomes truly an instrument of international 
importance. As a rule we find it the first article to be placed 
in a house. The one given the largest daily attention, and 
surely the one having the greatest influence over both the 
family health and the family peace. In primitive times the 
great logs that warmed and lighted the fire-place, with its 
splendid draughts airing the house, made the watching of the 
fire of real concern to the whole family, but gradually it be- 
came the duty of one person to "keep up the fire," merely for 
its cooking purposes ; a mechanical draught held the great 
outdoors in check, thereby doing away with that wonderful 
source of healthful ventilation, and the operation became a 
matter of putting in coal and taking out ashes, with all the 
intermediate worry and work that accompany the wondering 
of "How is the fire.''", and "What more can be baked while the 
oven is hot?" The latter leading often to an overabundant 
table, and an overworked woman. The former making it 
mentally impossible to think in a concentrated or worthy way 

114 



THE REGENERATION OF THE KITCHEN 

upon any subject unrelated to the condition of the kitchen 
stove. So that while it was an invention far ahead in many 
ways of the great open hearth, it carried with it its detrimental 
influence. 

When our work began at the Experiment Station, the first 
factor to consider was logically this same Kitchen stove, or the 
source of usable heat. We soon found through practical and 
comparative tests, that of all the uneconomic systems of house- 
work, that depending upon the use of a coal range, or stove, 
stood first. Thus, fuel at the present price of $6.50 a ton, 
costs a day for the average four-cover range, or stove, 21 
cents in a well-managed fire. This of course varies with the 
days of the week, but our tests were made under what seemed 
the most perfect average family conditions. Add to this an 
hour wasted in time and muscle at keeping the fire, the addi- 
tional waste in the quantity and quality of the finished food, 
much of which escapes not only to the kitchen walls, but too 
often to every corner of the house, carrying with it not only 
the value of the product, but the odor as well, for "every little 
odor has a body of its own," and in addition the time required 
in cleaning and removing this wasteful effect; the dreadful 
and unnecessary heat during a large part of the year; the 
attention needed that nothing shall be ruined in the process of 
cooking, and above all the effect upon the woman who must, 
with her other responsibilities and duties, become a more or 
less overworked stoker. While many of these points cannot 
well be summed up as money, the imagination of no one can 
be so limited as not to be able to realize the waste and extrava- 
gance of which the average kitchen stove is the cause, and that 
the Home Economic Corner-Stone of the Future is centered in 
the possibilities of the principle of the Fireless Cooker, or the 
Conservation of Heat and Steam applied in the most efficient 
way. 

Our tests in the fuel of Alcohol proved that while it is a 
little more expensive than oil, or gas, it has the added virtue 
of being the cleanest and readiest of flames, a steady and effi- 
cient heat that is light and portable in form, and can be used 
with success and satisfaction where no other fire is possible. A 

115 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

home may be well-lighted, heated and practically run with no 
other medium of heat, its greatest virtue being the cheapness 
and adaptability of the utensils needed. 

Gas is perhaps the sort of heat that serves best some of the 
purposes of every home. Until electric current is made cheaper, 
and until we can turn on a sufficient quantity to boil a quart of 
water in two minutes, instead of fifteen, Gas will be the pre- 
ferred medium for short time cooking, and the most satisfactory 
in the heating of water, of fireless cooker plates, and in the in- 
cineration of garbage, which requires an intense heat for a 
short time. 

But with the entrance of Electricity into the home, the pos- 
sibilities for the true regeneration of housework begins. It 
may cost more to "touch a button," or turn a switch for the 
moment, but in the long run, and for returns given, it becomes 
the most economic medium of the four heats upon which to 
base the practical workings of a home. With its various at- 
tachments for automatic control, there need be no waste in 
current when not required for use. It is the cleanest and most 
efficient heat and light known, and is besides capable in a more 
or less perfect way of performing every act of housework re- 
quiring any continuous power, from the beating of an e^gg, to 
the scrubbing of the floor. The use of such power we find the 
cheapest form of the current. Its translation into light ranks 
next in expense. And as heat it costs most. 

In actual tests repeated many times at the Station, we proved 
that three vessels of vegetables, containing three pints each, 
(such as potatoes, beets, and carrots) could be perfectly cooked 
with no waste of substance, for not more than four cents, and 
with no thought, or dirt, further than that of setting a thermo- 
stat and touching a switch. Again, a roast of a twenty-pound 
turkey has upon several occasions cost no more than twelve 
cents to deliver to the platter browned and flavored in the most 
approved fashion, retaining for the serving every particle of 
nutriment, and demanding not even a minute's labor in the 
washing of the pan. That electrically cooked food has a 
slightly different flavor from that prepared in other ways, is 
true, but it is far more perfect, and infinitely more uniform. If 

116 



J 



THE REGENERATION OF THE KITCHEN 

it were practical to have each article of the Menu prepared 
in the most approved way, then would the home be equipped 
with every type of fire that has been in use, from the hot stone 
hole and the hickory coals, to the electric chafing dish that ap- 
pears as if cooking by magic, no sign of the source of its heat 
being apparent save a delicate cord which enters the handle, but 
this is not to be encouraged, for the reason that we are now 
prone to give too much thought, time and space, to the Depart- 
ment of Eating for the Home's best health, and if too great a 
variety of fires had to be tended, it would surely have its ill 
effects, even though the beans and the chop did prove a trifle 
more to our liking. Hence in the simplifying of this work, as 
with the other departments of the home, our aim should be 
to cater to the highest standards, rather than to particular 
and often eccentric taste. Then may we camp in the woods 
and enjoy the results of the hot stone, just as occasionally 
we might eat at a restaurant where the red-hot ashes of the 
wood, or charcoal, will give up its charm to the success of the 
chop. 

And so we say the efficient kitchen may be equipped with a 
gas flame and an electric wire, whether it be the great estab- 
lishment that must feed many lives, or the tiny home built per- 
haps about one room. 

In a charming studio in New York, where every guest (and 
they are many), feels it both a privilege and a joy to enter, the 
Kitchen is a part of the Front Hall, both measuring in floor 
space not more than 5 feet x 8 feet. Here one moves from 
the entrance door of wonderful glass, — giving forth a faint 
and charming tone of music as it opens to each who touch the 
quaint and exquisite knocker bearing the name of the home, — to 
a gorgeous Oriental rug upon a parquet background, and under 
a Avonderful lamp of original design, deposits his cane and hat 
upon a spacious old carved bit of furniture, — ^having that de- 
lightful expression of desire to do its part in the real hospitality 
of the place, — and if he looks about him, he sees nothing in the 
little foyer unsuited to the environment of the most approved 
art standards in hall furnishing. He does not know from 
sight, or odor, that just behind a most interesting four-panel 

117 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

leaded and stained glass screen, movable upon ball-bearing 
rollers, apparently placed that it may receive the light of a large 
and open window for best appreciation, he would find, if he be 
permitted to but move one of the panels, a most unusual minia- 
ture laboratory. A small hall closet built for the use of rub- 
bers, brushes, newspapers, and "what not," has been converted 
into a food workshop. Here is placed a model kitchen sink, with 
a drop coming over and forming a table when needed, but 
quickly replaced when not in use. Little shelves up and down 
give ample room for the storing of material and utensils. An 
approved receptacle for garbage takes care of the immediate 
necessities. And what is there prepared is routed to the right, 
with but the moving of an arm, on to a broad and ample window- 
sill, which receives both the article ready to be cooked, and the 
finished product. This sill one finds also equipped with a drop 
wing that can be put to service, and with an additional storage 
place underneath. With sufficient curiosity he would also dis- 
cover upon the outside of the window, strongly fastened to the 
side of the house and easily reached by raising the lower sash, a 
remarkable ice-box so built as not to obstruct the window in 
the slightest, and as it is not upon the street, no objection is 
noted. But the most startling impression is made when this 
favored guest sees for the first time the Kitchen stove from 
which he knows as many as twenty-six discriminating men and 
women are being served in the Studio, with a most delicious 
dinner of six courses, and he stands aghast when he realizes 
that the two-hole gas stove, with its small under flame, placed 
upon the ledge of a door which leads to the back Hall of the 
Apartment, with merely a hole cut through like a box-office — 
properly ventilated and protected from the flame, — was the only 
fire used in the cooking. 

Surely as an example of a particular Kitchen, this little 
Studio space of about six linear feet, practically at the front 
door, combining all the requirements of a standard kitchen, is 
prophetic. What may it mean? Or rather what may it not 
mean? Does such a picture, and it is true to life, not sug- 
gest that one's whole attitude toward the kitchen can be 
changed from the usual utilitarian idea only, to the embracing 

118 



THE REGENERATION OF THE KITCHEN 

of the useful with the beautiful? For nothing is wholly useful 
until it includes beauty, nor beautiful unless useful. 

The thought in relation to the modern kitchen that we of 
the Experiment Station tried to arouse, was founded upon two 
illustrations. That of the Model Pullman Car Kitchen, where 
space is economized, and the routing element of prime impor- 
tance. That of the particular Studio, where life may be so full, 
free, and varied, where beauty and feeling reign supreme, and 
where no task is undignified if performed within the legitimate 
scope of the art and creative instinct. A portion of the studio 
set apart as a place from which to feed the "inner man" may be 
perfectly managed, to the end that such a "Kitchen" provides 
not only bread with butter as a relish, but a food that will sat- 
isfy the higher man-senses as well. 

This leads us to consider for a moment the proper environ- 
ment for a Kitchen. Its lines, the forms in use, which should 
be classic and fine in design and the color, or tones of its make- 
up. 

At the Experiment Station were two Kitchens for inspection, 
or more properly three, for the Butler's Pantry had a Kitchen- 
ette distinction. In the one known as the Electric Kitchen, our 
plan was to interpret a universal kitchen motive in coloring. 
We tried, with what seemed charming success, to suggest the 
light of the sun in the carefully blended yellow tones of the 
walls and draperies, the Sun being the great cook-stove, or 
fire of Nature by which our food is first prepared. It is said 
that draperies, or curtains, have no place in a Kitchen, but if 
a curtain Is found to be useful at any window, surely it has its 
part to play in softening the light and shading the glare in 
this room as well, letting the worker catch a glimpse of playful 
color as she glances about. The selection of material and de- 
sign being the important part, the curtains here were of a scrim 
as easily cleansed as a towel, and with an interesting stencil 
study suitable as suggesting the uses of fire and light; grace- 
ful torches illuminated in golden tones, formed a border of 
decoration. Crowning this room was a band of that choicest 
of all our native Flowers, the Laurel, designed so as to form a 
most attractive frieze, symbolizing the esteem In which Kitchen 

119 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

operations should be held. All the fixtures of the room one 
could see at a glance had been given careful thought and at- 
tention as to form and use, a point too frequently neglected. 
Every part was in proportion to the whole. Many really beau- 
tiful curves and graceful lines, as well as carefully chosen and 
properly placed utensils made the room as fitting a setting as 
might be suggested for what is known as the "working part of 
the house." The old water jug and copper charm brought 
back into use from the drawing-room. One did not feel that 
the window seats, with their cushions and flowers, the wall cab- 
inets, or the creamy dull enamel of the paint, were in any sense 
inappropriate in this elaborately wired and mechanically 
equipped department. 

The other kitchen was more personal in motive. We had 
talked much of the conservation of heat and steam as the funda- 
mental principle of cooking, and again these same artists who 
so successfully helped in the carrying out of the idea in the 
Electric Kitchen, were equally happy in the interpretation here. 
The walls were painted in the same dull finish; a most delight- 
ful shade of pale gray blended from floor to ceiling, as to sug- 
gest the faintest of smoke and steam. The woodwork, a dully 
finished white enamel, was cut in at every small ledge Avith black, 
as a utilitarian precaution, as well as to give character to the 
whole. The pearl-colored scrim curtains, the frieze and the wall 
panels were traced with a stencil design suggesting fire and 
iron, and the gracefully and well posed figures of two fascinat- 
ing cooks turning a goose over an old iron "spit," carried out 
still further the wall impression and charm. 

As long as we are so limited by really ugly Kitchen fixtures 
from which to choose, the opportunities for aesthetic combina- 
tions must be made and jealously guarded by the individual, but 
there has been considerable progress in the past few years. 
Since the time of the opening of the Station, for instance, when 
it was almost impossible to find an architect, or decorator in 
New York, or in America who had any higher idea of beauty 
for the Kitchen than a purely sanitary one, a place upon which 
one could turn a hose. While cleanliness is a virtue ; the proper 
standard of beauty should include it. You may imagine our 

120 



THE REGENERATION OF THE KITCHEN 

delight when we found two able and advanced artists who re- 
sponded to the first call for help, and who have since made a 
particularly careful and enthusiastic study of this part of the 
house, believing it just as worthy the artist's attention as the 
consideration of the atmosphere of any other room in the home. 
Sometimes the writer questions as to whether the kitchen, as 
we know it, will ever be regenerated? Possessed of the old 
charm of the original sort? Or whether it will not disappear 
entirely, be eliminated from the plan of the house, as it becomes 
more personal. But this much is certain: as long as life en- 
dures, man will have food, and he will make for himself a home. 
There can be no home without the element of heat, or fire. The 
serving of food is the main purpose of this domestic unit, and 
"to cook" is the origin of the word Kitchen. But inasmuch as 
we can foresee the time when this function shall be determined a 
fine art, when the equipment necessary to feed a family shall be 
beautiful in form and portable in simplicity, when the odors 
of fat and steam shall have vanished and the cook's apron shall 
have become a forgotten weapon, then shall we be able to 
"serve" from any delightful spot, or corner, the atmosphere 
of which shall permeate the home In its life-giving essence. 
Whether such a room be set apart, or not, the meaning of the 
Kitchen shall be charmingly felt throughout the entire house. 



121 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE EFFICIENT LAUNDRY 

"Cleanliness of body was ever esteemed to 
proceed from a due reverence to God" 

"Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness" 

The efficient laundry is the laundry that gets the best results 
with the least waste in time, strength, fabric, water, soap, etc. 
The standard being plenty of clean, fresh clothing ever ready 
and routed through the house to its proper place at the least 
cost in human effort and money. 

Washing is a necessity for the sake of health. The study 
of hygiene cannot fail to impress one with the fact that the 
skin requires the utmost care in the performance of its most 
important function, — the elimination of waste from the body. 
When we consider that from 25 to 40 ounces of material passes 
out daily through the millions of tiny openings, nicely arranged 
over the entire human being, it becomes a grave matter for 
adjustment to see to it that these gases and small particles 
are not impeded in their passage. While there is a question as 
to the dangers of over-much immersion in artificially confined 
water, there has never been a suggestion, as far as the w^riter 
knows, of the unhealthiness of a too frequent change of gar- 
ments. In fact, this sort of cleanliness is the strongest aid to 
good health, inasmuch as the skin is made more active by 
the influence of fresh clothing and the manner in which it 
absorbs the impurities thrown off by the pores. This princi- 
ple of course extending to the use of sheets, towels, pillow cases, 
etc. Even the "feel" and influence of clean linen about the 
house has a kind of reflex action stimulating to greater activ- 
ity our "sense" of cleanliness. Hence from the standpoint of 
human efficiency and the resistance to disease, washing becomes 
a necessity. Ironing, on the other hand, is more or less of a 
luxury, — demanding time, strength and skill in proportion to 

122 



THE EFFICIENT LAUNDRY 

the nature of the fabric used, and the design and importance 
of the garment. By the latter we mean whether the article has 
sufficient value in its relation to the home to warrant its cost. 
For example: why do housekeepers so generally believe that 
table-cloths are a necessity .f* When the most exquisite luncheons, 
suppers, teas, and even breakfasts are laid without them.'' There 
seems to be but one excuse for the use of white table-cloths, 
and that is, custom or tradition founded upon the necessity of 
covering up, or protecting the table and of assuring a clean 
surface from which to eat. As far as covering up the table is 
concerned, a new top occasionally would cost less in the average 
home than the labor and money needed for the cloths of a year 
even, and the protecting has already been so well arranged for 
the other meals that but little more thought and asbestos would 
be needed to guarantee safety at dinner. The clean and attrac- 
tive surface from which to eat becomes then the vital issue. 
How can this standard be maintained at less cost than the pur- 
chase price of linen covers and their upkeep.'* 

At the Experiment Station we estimated that to assure good 
conditions, at least two table-cloths a week were required. These 
could rarely be purchased for less than $7.50 apiece, and if used 
constantly would last hardly more than a year. The labor in 
spreading and folding them three times a day, and in keeping 
them spotless amounted in low figures to $20,80. A total in the 
year of $35.00 for only a fairly attractive cover, as against 
doilies, or small coverings, which when properly selected last 
longer, cost less, and require much less labor of not a fatiguing 
sort. 

Table-napkins were also considered from an efficient stand- 
point; a linen one per person costing in the course of a year, 
if changed, once a day, $6.20, besides the care and anxiety of 
keeping them in order. As against paper ones, which can be 
purchased in large size (Dennison's paper towels make excel- 
lent napkins) costing per person per year, all of 93 cents, and 
changed three times a day at a cost of $2.76 per year. These 
figures are worth dwelling upon for a moment in order to deter- 
mine whether in one's standard, or ideal of the home, we are 
really getting what we pay for in each department. Towels 

123 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

and rags in at least three-quarters of the cases in which they 
are used, are more efficient when made of paper, and require 
no washing. 

Again let us mention a certain "combination" or undergar- 
ment that has been quite generally worn until lately. This re- 
quired in time and motion study but a very few minutes to wash, 
but fully half an hour to iron, thus making the cost in labor per 
year for the wearing of a simple ruffled garment $18.30. The 
initial cost of $3.50 each, bringing a total of $28.80. An 
amount that would make the woman with a carefully made 
budget conclude she might with economy revel in silk combina- 
tions at $6.00 apiece, that would require no ironing and but 
minimum effort in washing. The first idea then in the effi- 
cient home laundry is to cut down the wash, not by doing with- 
out clean clothes, but by the substitution of paper where pos- 
sible and by using only such fabrics and designs as require 
the least effort in cleansing, little or no ironing, or cut in such a 
way as to be practical for the use of a mangle, no starch, and 
no materials that require close, careful and long time attention. 
The washing estimated, planned and determined upon, the dis- 
patching of it is of next consideration. This means standard- 
ized conditions and standardized operations. Given plenty of 
fresh air, water, soap and sunshine, the process of washing 
becomes a more or less mechanical one, the object being to get 
the water through the texture of the material in such a way as 
to carry the soil with it. 

The rubbing and pounding with the hands, and such crude 
instruments as stones and the washboard, have made it quite 
impractical to consider the long time application of water in 
proper motion at boiling temperature. The modern machine, 
however, shuts the clothes in a compartment, the hotter the bet- 
ter, where an emulsion of soap and soft water with live steam 
plays upon the garments in such a way as to loosen and rid 
them of all soil in the quickest and most easily dispatched way. 
The machine we found to be most effective at the Station, is built 
upon the oscillating principle in such a way as to squeeze the 
wash in the angle and comers of the copper kettle at each turn. 

Perhaps the simplest way to describe this laundry is to step 

124 



THE EFFICIENT LAUNDRY 

into it, in words, and after looking about for a moment, actually 
do a week's washing. 

In the first place, it is not in the Basement where poor air, 
poor light and poor drainage are usual, but on the ground 
floor just off a pleasant porch, covered with vines and over- 
looking the garden. Large ample windows shaded with white 
scrim curtains stencilled with a border of water plants in pale 
Blue, give plenty of light and air on all sides. The woodwork 
is white dull enamel stencilled with tiny water jugs, and the 
walls are a wonderful tone of atmosphere, blue in three shades 
from surbase and side wall to ceiling, stencilled in the panels with 
graceful classic figures of women draped in blue and white and 
washing with long-handled bells in quaint and curious old ket- 
tles. On the floor is a pale-blue velvet rug, which is rolled 
back when the machine is running, although the tub has never 
been known to spatter, or spill, if not overloaded. An old- 
fashioned combination laundry seat and table, finished in white 
and stencilled in blue, stands in the ironing end of the room, 
together with an adjustable skirt and shirt board that locks 
up against the wall out of the way, and comes down at the 
touch of a button to the height desired for sitting comfortably 
at one's work. An adjustable chair arranged to fit this board, 
and both finished in the same white with the little stencilled 
border of blue water jugs, makes a picturesque furnishing 
against a background of white and blue bannisters. Just under 
the stairway is a cupboard big enough to store the sleeve board, 
clothes baskets, soap, etc. The electric irons being pocketed 
in the skirt-board, come into place as it descends, ready for 
use with the turn of a button. 

At the other end of the room are three stationary tubs placed 
at the right height and also finished in white with the border 
of pale-blue water jugs, and a little white cupboard on either 
side giving a sort of drain board at each end of the tubs. In 
one corner is to be found a sort of laboratory cupboard with 
glass front through which can be seen a variety of glass con- 
tainers labelled: "Ammonia," "Bluing," "Borax," "Alcohol," 
"Muriatic Acid," "Oxalic Acid," "Common Salt," and all the 
other aids for the removal of stains, and ease in washing. In 

125 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

front of the tubs stands the electric washing machine and just 
between the washing and ironing sides of the room is a fasci- 
nating little table with small drop shelves, all decorated in the 
same blue and white, and holding a 24-inch gas mangle run by 
an electric motor. 

With this much in the way of environment and atmosphere, 
let us proceed to accomplish an old-time day's work in about two 
hours, and the whole week's laundry of seventy pieces (barring 
the sheets and spreads which have gone to the public wash) in 
four hours. 

First, boil the water. In this case it is done with a gas 
burner under the metal tub, the water having been put in with 
a hose connection from the hot-water faucet of the stationary 
tub near. 

Not having this, we would advise installing a small tank 
over the tubs, with gas burner under, so as to have plenty of 
boiling water, that does not have to be carried. Soften the 
water with a little ammonia, or lime water, and have melting 
some best quality soap chips. Poor soap destroys the clothes 
and makes them yellow. Add about a pound of chips to a tub 
of water. While the water is boiling, or before, sort the clothes, 
take out any stains, and soak any that are particularly soiled. 
When all is ready, fill the electric tub to its prescribed capacity, 
follow the mechanical directions, and start the motor. Either 
run hot water through the clothes that have been soaked, or put 
them through the wringer so as not to lower the temperature of 
the suds. Run the machine, preferably half an hour, — and 
while this is being done, the stockings may be washed in a 
small hand machine, or any particular pieces of flannel, or 
silk, not suitable in the boikng hot machine. The line may be 
put in order, or other things may be attended to. Before tak- 
ing the clothes out, run the water in the stationary tubs for 
rinsing, stop the machine, and lift each piece from the hot 
water with a small wooden fork, or pair of tongs, start the 
wringer and feed rapidly and carefully until the tub is empty. 
Rinse the clothes with a long-handled bell, and keep the hands 
out of the water as much as possible. While the rinsing is 
going on, another tub full may be started, if the water is not 

126 



THE EFFICIENT LAUNDRY 

too dirty, by merely adding more liquid soap. A wringer be- 
tween the tubs, with a motor attached, makes it easy to pass 
the pieces from one tub to another. Washing in boiling water, 
three good rinsings, and plenty of fresh air and sunshine, 
make boiling and bluing unnecessary. As it is easier to wash 
garments in this way than to iron them when starched, there 
seems to be no particular virtue in starch. There never was 
any, except the surface gloss, the fashion of stiffness, and the 
protection from too easily soiling. 

The two hours is nearly up, and all is ready to be hung out 
to dry. While the drying is going on, empty the tubs and 
replace everything in order; rest a bit, or have luncheon, and 
then bring in all the pieces that can be ironed in the mangle, 
and as many others as are in a fit state of dampness to iron. 
Turn the mangling table into place, light the gas, put up the 
leaves, let down the clothes horse, shake out, fold, or straighten 
the pieces, start the motor and begin to iron them. With a 
little care and practice, the mangle will really do most excellent 
work. In the course of an hour all the flat pieces will be folded 
away and the real ironing may begin. Let down the skirt- 
board, place the chair in a comfortable position, connect the 
iron, and in an hour or two all should be out of the way, ready, 
after a little airing, to route into place. 

In comparison with the old way of hand rubbing, wringing^ 
bluing, boiling, starching, sprinkling and ironing, modern 
methods as effected by machinery, make home laundering a sim- 
ple and non-fatiguing operation. The time is cut to less than a 
third, and no part of the work is in any sense hard labor. Al- 
though it is true there seems no particular reason why it should 
remain in the home, save for the fact that public laundries are 
not yet efficient in protecting the fabric, or adjusting the price 
of other things in proportion to sheets, shirts and towels. Co- 
operative laundries in each community would be an immense help 
if properly run by a scientific manager and guarded by effective 
regulations. A separate washing machine in each home, of ex- 
pensive design, seems like a waste, when in most cases it is used 
but an hour or two a week. On the other hand, an electric ma- 
chine costing a hundred dollars pays for itself in less than a 

127 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

year, where the family has been in the habit of having a washer- 
woman at the tubs for one or more days a week. 

Cleanliness is a virtue and a necessity, but cleanliness at the 
expense of anyone's youth, health and happiness, is a ques- 
tionable virtue, particularly when it is no longer essential that 
such a standard of drudgery shall be a part of the household. 

We owe it to ourselves, our companions, and our Creator, 
to make all labor efficient and all work, a joy. "Cleanliness shall 
then indeed be next to Godliness," for the effort of keeping clean 
will be a pleasure as well as health-giving to everybody con- 
cerned. 



128 



CHAPTER XIV 

rOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

"And homeless near a thousand homes I stood 
and near a thousand tables pined and wanted food" 

In the midst of the personal prejudices of the food- faddist, 
the academic complexities of the food chemist, and the avail- 
able products of the food manufacturer, the modern housewife 
finds it no easy task to intelligently provide from day to day 
a uniform quality of proper nourishment in the simplest and 
most attractive form that will adequately meet the varied de- 
mands of those who differ as to age, size, temperament and 
occupation. The kind of food that will insure the greatest re- 
sistance against disease, and encourage the most efficient and 
effective action of mind and body. For it cannot be denied in 
the face of statistics and experience that modern life is unnatu- 
rally and unnecessarily burdened with physical and mental dis- 
abilities, the natural result of a too rapid civilization perhaps, 
but more directly the inevitable outcome of wrong standards of 
living, a disorganized base of control, and artificialities gener- 
ally, both social and individual. 

Of necessity the cry for a balance must be "back to nature," 
but just what does that phrase mean? It assuredly need not 
mean the usual picture of the "simple life" in all its crude 
unattractiveness and discomfort ; that form of getting back 
to the roots and the rocks in actual reality, but rather a modern 
incorporating of these solid primitive principles into harmonious 
and scientific understanding and use ; following life's processes 
through nature's way of working and expressing and adding 
thereto all that man can include of beauty, convenience, and 
luxury. Let us not try to go "back to the soil" in the old way, 
but let us also refuse to attempt to go back, holding solely to the 
laboratory route ; where the simple sign-posts of nature have 
been substituted rather than crowned and beautified. A labora- 

129 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

tory civilization that would conquer nature is incredible to the 
soul of woman. Life is her first concern, and the essence of 
life has never yet, nor can it ever come out of a laboratory. 
The very breath of the Creator, held in spirit, and delivered 
from moment to moment as need and condition determine, will 
ever evade the most ambitious grip of the scientific searcher. 

The function of woman is to feed and nourish the race. This 
• function she can perform but improperly unless the food sup- 
ply is in some way under her control. We cannot return to 
the period when practically all the food of a family was raised 
within the radius of a square mile or two, nor would we sacri- 
fice such progressive standards of sanitation, hygiene and distri- 
bution as have resulted from the evolution of the big food indus- 
tries. These things are valuable. There is besides no particular 
reason why every home should forever remain a miniature food 
factory for "fifty-seven" or more varieties, but there is great rea- 
son for each home-maker in the land to consider intelligently and 
intimately the kind of food substance that enters into the life or 
death of the family under her care, and know well what she is 
serving, why she is serving it, and how it should be served. 
Three points of view in which there is to be found scarcely a 
woman living who is thoroughly satisfied as to her knowledge, 
unless she possesses little and wants less. 

Let us ask at the outset, as we did in the work of the Experi- 
ment Station : What is the matter with our food supply ? Why 
is it not maintaining a higher standard of human strength.'' 
How best can a family be fed to insure a maximum degree of 
health and prosperity at minimum expenditure of time, strength 
and material? Three simple questions for each of which, every 
woman should strive to find the answer even though it never be 
final and satisfying. 

Firstly, we are suffering from an over-refined class of foods 
known as denatured products, that might more properly perhaps 
be called un-natured, a class of staple articles from which much, 
if not all, of the life substance has been subtracted, contami- 
nated, or sterilized, including all patent process flours, meal, 
sugar, rice, etc. 

Secondly, we are in danger from what is known as adulter- 

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FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

ated and misbranded foods. A class into which has been intro- 
duced foreign substance synthetically compounded for the pur- 
pose of preserving, altering the consistency, or changing the 
appearance. This type of so-called food includes all chemi- 
cally manufactured flavorings, much of the "canned stuff," all 
"bleached" and "dyed" products, a great deal of the meat sup- 
ply, a dangerous quantity of the soda-water fountain and Bar 
compounds, and all foods that have in any way been arrested in 
their natural process of fermentation by the introduction of a 
form of benzoate of soda, formaldehyde, or any such preserva- 
tive chemical. 

Thirdly, our lives are made uncertain from moment to mo- 
ment by the unsanitary condition of food. This does not mean 
"wholesome dirt," the soil of the earth exposed to pure air and 
sunshine, but rather the germs, poisons, microbes, and the in- 
sects, and excreta of the unclean. The foul state of food kept 
too long, placed in unsanitary containers, or exposed to the gases 
and influence of antagonistic substances. 

There are but two sources from which life in normal condi- 
tion is maintained — air and food — and as the first is an impor- 
tant form of food, we may say there is but the one great source, 
that of food alone, and as such it is not only of fundamental and 
material importance, but capable of study through analysis 
and expression that centers and expands in spirit itself. 

What should one eat to be strong, for no man liveth who 
does not wish for strength of some sort, — "a strength that con- 
quers muscle." As we do not live upon what we eat, but upon 
what we digest, or assimilate, it is the process of digestion that 
becomes of first importance. A very simple and appropriate 
lesson in dietetics came to the Experiment Station during its 
formation, centered in what was called Brown Rice, a name 
given to a natural, whole rice, unpolished, uncoated, and un- 
bleached, by Mr. Alfred McCann, to whom we are obligated 
both as New Jersey Club women and as individuals interested 
in a courageous and able campaign for better food. In his 
opening address which was out of doors owing to the number 
of people listening, he picked up a handful of earth from the 
garden and illustrated therewith what many of us had learned 

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PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

in Chemistry, but without attaching the real relationship ; the 
fact that it was composed of approximately fifteen elements, 
oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, 
sulphur, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, iron, fluorine and silicon 
in mineral form, which were totally unfitted to nourish the 
human organism, but all required in the building of animal cells. 
In fact not one element could with impunity be left out of our 
food as a whole, or of the original and particular combination 
of each separate article of consumption. The brown rice was 
mentioned as a natural product from which nothing had been 
taken and no element added, in distinction from white rice. 
And entire wheat, with its advantages, rather than white flour 
from which nine of the essential elements required for proper 
digestion had been removed in the process of milling. He went 
on to say that wheat was the staff of life and the universal food 
for man, for the reason that it contained in vegetal form the 
same harmonious balance of these fifteen elements found in the 
earth in his hand, and again in the perfect animal organism, 
and that to leave them out of our diet, or unduly combine them 
through ignorance, or intent, was risking the most precious 
rock upon which life was anchored, that of health and well- 
being, and to throw away even the least bit of the water in 
which a vegetable was boiled, in fact not to consume it with the 
vegetable prepared was a dietetic sin. 

Those of us who had studied Balanced Rations in weight, 
bulk and percentage of protein, carbo-hydrate and fat, had given 
all too little thought to this most vital subject of ash, or base, 
as these elements are called, spending hours of time, eff'orts of 
strength and an over-abundance of money preparing bread, 
cake, pastry, boiled vegetables and meats, cereals and sweets 
from which the life essence, the very substance that makes for 
assimilation and digestion had been extracted or unbalanced. 
No wonder we asked ourselves — Is this efficient feeding? Does 
it pay to spend one's money and one's self preparing food that 
not only does not give strength, but that undermines the con- 
stitution through the absence of these salts demanded by the 
organism for the strength of the bones and the solid structure, 
the physical basis of the cells, and for the encouragement of live 

132 



FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

circulation and regulation of the blood and all the secretions 
of the body? Clearly the home-maker must provide a natural, 
unadulterated, clean diet if she would give her daily attention 
to the building up of a strong and healthy family, not a weak 
and diseased one. Inasmuch as adulteration, or the introduction 
of foreign elements is quite as deadly as denaturing, for the 
reason that the system has to use up strength in combating 
the inappropriate substances, eliminating them as best it can, 
generally by overtaxing the weakest spot ; for a preservative, 
a synthetic compound, or a filler not only must be cast out, 
because it is not life giving, but it disorganizes the whole natu- 
ral process of digestion, by getting in the road, as it were, 
and stopping or diverting the normal movement in the ali- 
mentary tract, using for its deadening effects the very secre- 
tions and organs that should be required to act only upon life- 
giving foods, thereby lowering the tissue tone, reducing re- 
sistance, robbing the body of its vitality, and weakening the 
entire bone structure. We now know that foreign and non- 
assimilative substances introduced into the system not only 
injure all the organs, but indirectly affect the finer nerves that 
unite the mind and soul with the body. 

To feed a family in a safe and sane way, the first step should 
be to educate the taste to the real and simple foods as nature 
provides and matures them, untouched by the commercial hand 
of man except in so far as is necessary to remove the outer, or 
unedible chaff, or shell, and grind, press, or dry and pack and 
distribute in clean and orderly fashion. 

Appetite is a wonderful guide to one's needs, but an ignorant, 
uncontrolled or perverted appetite is a human disgrace. When 
the family realizes that much of the food that is now prepared 
at the expense of the entire household is dead and dangerous 
in character, the taste for elaborate desserts, spongy white bread, 
and anemic-looking cake and rolls, will gradually change to a 
more normal appetite, for that which comes straight from Na- 
ture's own cookstove. For a very large part of the work of 
the Sun is to prepare food for man. Storing up Its life-giving 
heat in the vegetable world, for future use. Does it not seem 
a little presumptuous of us to think the results so Incomplete? 

133 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Cooking originally meant caking, or putting into cake form 
for more ready handling. It was and should be a process of 
gently continuing the action of the Sun through artificial 
heat applied by a baking or steaming method, expanding and 
softening the cells, but not breaking them. There are three 
kinds of expansions. The expansion of air, of liquid, and of 
the more solid part. All three should be given ample oppor- 
tunity to take place in an even, gentle, and not too rapid man- 
ner, and the cells should be acted upon only by the condensing 
of their own moisture, avoiding the adding of water to any food 
that can possibly be cooked in another way. Prunes, beans, 
peas, etc., can be soaked in water before cooking until they have 
taken up all they can hold, when they can be put in a crock and 
baked with no water. It might be safe to say that nothing 
should be boiled. Even an egg is best prepared by pouring 
boiling water over it until it is sufficiently coddled to make 
it palatable. The boiling of food not only tends to extract from 
it the essential salts, the fats, and other properties, but the 
continued application of heat to the body of boiling water 
tends to break up the cells of the food into an atomic form very 
difficult, if not at times impossible of utilization by the animal 
organism. Therefore to bake all foods that require cooking 
at all in a covered utensil in the oven, in which has been placed 
a vessel of water, or in a paper bag, a fireless cooker, or a 
form of Bain Marie on top of the stove, is the scientific way 
to cook, but the least cooking done, the better. Life-giving 
foods should not have their life destroyed by too long, or too 
great exposure to intense heat. Sterilized foods are classed as 
dead foods, not to be used except in the absence of the real thing. 
To a certain extent the system can and will use them, but at 
the expense of the tissues and cells from which they draw the 
life elements that are lacking in the food. The object of the 
salts is to neutralize the acids of the end products, and as the 
body is incapable of assimilating inorganic substances, the salts, 
or the base of our food, should be organic. This brings us to 
a discussion of meat versus vegetable diet, and the meaning of 
protein, for while it is essential that the system be supplied with 
sufficient protein, it is a grave question as to whether it should 

134 



FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

be furnished in animal form ; second-handed animal organisms 
made out of the dead carcasses of other animals certainly do 
not appeal to one's poetic sense and is a custom of feeding ques- 
tioned by common sense. 

That most complex and almost undefinable substance called 
protein, is not confined as many housewives believe, to meat, fish, 
eggs, cheese, milk, nuts, etc., but is found in due proportion 
in each article of diet and in all forms of life. Indeed it is the 
life-fiber of all. The tissues of all plants, fruits, nuts, cereals, 
and vegetals of every sort contain an abundance of protein that 
when not robbed of the base that makes for proper assimila- 
tion, or broken and destroyed in the cell from improper cooking, 
conveys to the system all it requires for health and strength, 
and in the easiest manner in which it can be assimilated. Every 
element for nutrition whether mineral or organic is found in 
the vegetable kingdom ; salts of potash, soda, iron, magnesia, 
manganese, substances analogous to fibrin, albumen, gelatin, 
acids, etc. The animal form of food holds nothing for the human 
body that is not better supplied by the vegetable kingdom. If 
we took our meat alive and ate blood and bones, there would 
be less objection from a physical point of view, but when robbed 
of the life-giving elements and vital salts, no class of food so 
quickly putrefies and turns upon its victim as animal food, and 
the dangers are worse when preservative is added as is the cus- 
tom of many butchers. Is it then worth while to spend large 
sums of table allowance money for meat even though custom 
and a false appetite demand this waste.'* It is little less than 
ruinous to child life, even if adults can endure the strain for a 
time with the accompanying disorders, such as rheumatism, 
nervous indigestion, liver and kidney trouble, etc., for the stim- 
ulation produced by a meat diet, and falsely taken for strength, 
must sooner or later be true to itself and no longer stimulate. 
There remains just one other point that the writer would like to 
discuss with the modern housewife before taking up the subject 
of what is worth preparing and using in the shape of food. 
Fully realizing it takes a little audacity and courage to ex- 
press a conviction contrary to all accepted custom and belief, 
she nevertheless cannot doubt but that one's habitual use of 

135 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

yeast is the most common dietetic sin of the times. To preach 
temperance to the weak and then calmly and sanctimoniously eat 
and give to them the kind of bread usually served, is an outrage 
against human life. Fermented bread is but little better than 
fermented liquor, except that its action is slower ; less apparent 
and more respectable, but in truth it is one of the great causes 
of intemperance ; its respectability therefore is hypocritical. 

All corruption has its beginning in fermentation. A form of 
decay takes place before the health of an organ is affected. 
Foods and organs decay through fermentation, chemicalization 
and electrolization. The first is the result of the breaking of 
cells. The second, of the introduction of foreign and therefore 
non-assimilative substances. And the third, when a more posi- 
tive condition overcomes a negative one, and a galvanic battery 
is established. Organisms are able to appropriate rightly, or 
wrongly, but the spirit of life manifests according to law by 
which one must abide, to have construction and incorruption. 
The form in which life-giving food must be supplied is cellu- 
lar, unbroken cells, and as cells develop from a center or 
nucleus, the very disposition of each cell, either hereditary, ac- 
quired, or inflicted, has a peculiar life-giving quality when 
conveyed in food. As the object of all food is to create, pre- 
serve, and develop life, so the life value of all food is deter- 
mined by the absence of all tendency to decay, crystallize, elcc- 
trolize and the presence of unbroken cells carried to the sys- 
tem without chemicalization. For as the human body develops 
through chrysalization, not crystalization, and as all minerals, 
or "chemicals" have an habitual form in the latter, — even sodi- 
um-chloride — they are unfit for food. The system can handle 
them only by using considerable energy in ridding itself of 
such crystals and their effect. 

Before deciding what foods should be eaten, let us inquire 
into the process of digestion, which in the animal is in three 
forms and three localities, airiform, liquiform, solidiform, the 
first in the head, the second in the stomach, and the third in the 
intestines. As food is properly combined in these forms and its 
value given up and effectively acted upon by the juices or 
humors of each locality, proportionate life therein is maintained. 

136 



FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

The adaptation of these juices is by virtue of the kind and 
flavor of the food offered. Foods delivered to the system that 
have the most material to be acted upon, are to be chosen. 
They may be flavors of an active, passive, or moderate quality, 
such as are normally craved for the upbuilding and conserving 
of an undecaying organism ; an organism that can hold its 
vitality, proving "Its seed is in itself." 

Instead of dividing foods into protein, carbo-hydrate, and fat, 
which is more or less confusing and misleading, let us take 
the natural division of gum, oil and fiber. All foods are a 
combination of these, which together with natural sweet, con- 
vey and manifest the spirit and the law of life through the 
creative, preservative and developtive principles in solid, airi- 
form, or liquid substances. The hidden life value in food is 
in the amount of cleansing, healing, or strengthening quality 
conveyed in bitter, sweet, or stringy fibrous form. Foods car- 
rying the highest life value are classified as perfectly ripe unde- 
cayed fruits, and nuts, ripe full-sized grain and other seeds and 
eggs, fresh juices and oils of fruits and seeds, milk, honey, herbs 
and vegetables. The fiber supplying life to the muscles, the 
oil or liquid to the glands and circulation, the cells or seeds sup- 
plying the cellular system, which is practically the whole 
sj'stem. 

In the preparation of unfermented bread, crumbly lightness 
should be the aim, not spongy. The ordinary basis for all such 
bread is about three cups of whole wheat flour, or meal, to three 
tablespoons of olive oil and sufficient cold water to spread it 
or make it into cakes, but care should be taken not to add 
too much water. This bread can be varied in a hundred ways, 
using all kinds of grain, or seed meal, introducing different 
kinds of nuts and fruits, flavoring and eggs. The foundation 
should always be a meal made from an entire grain, slow 
ground; the latter, because a slow method of milling is safer 
than the present quick process, for the reason that rapid mill- 
ing generates heat and causes a chemical change to take place 
in whatever is being ground. This added to the bleaching 
process, the robbing of the outer coatings, — or bran, — and 
the inner kernel, or germ, the powdery form and the almost 

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PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

complete sterilization that makes it possible to keep ordinary 
flour almost indefinitely, suggests a more than risky food prod- 
uct in white patent-process flour even without the contamina- 
tion of yeast. Oil is used for the crumbly lightness in any pro- 
portion preferred, and care should be taken to beat in all the 
air possible even to making the bread in an airy place. There 
is a method, however, of pumping air into bread instead of using 
yeast, advocated by Dr. Danghlish, but untried as yet by the 
writer. Unleavened bread should always be baked in the form of 
cakes, or crackers, gems, waffles and pancakes, and not in thick 
loaves unless Dr. Danghlish's method makes this practical. 
These breads not only take less time in the making, than the 
leaven bread, but keep fresh longer, and never seem to tire the 
appetite as do the conventional customary receipts. These 
with fresh tree-ripened fruit, fresh milk and cream, salad, cod- 
dled eggs, nuts, dried fruits and vegetables give all the nour- 
ishment required through a simple process of preparation. 
Cooking, when properly done, should be an aid to digestion by 
softening and expanding the cells that would otherwise be im- 
pervious to the digestive juices, carrying out a further ripen- 
ing process, but Oh ! how often it but carries the poison from 
which the race is slowly dying, through physical inefficiency, 
particularly when left to the unintelligent, uneducated, common- 
senseless average servant. Even at best it has its disadvantages. 
What is known as the albumen — a form of protein — is coagu- 
lated and made less digestible, while a part of the organic salts 
are changed into an inorganic state, so that every care should 
be taken that cooking may do as little injury as can be guarded 
against, through the most complete understanding of the ap- 
plication of principle and the operation of the right method. 
As a rule the housewife wastes too much time in the prepara- 
tion of food-stuffs. She should be skilled in the use of whole- 
some fruits and vegetables ; the steaming and baking of such 
kinds as require any cooking, and the making of an endless 
variety of salads, unleavened breads, cakes and unfermented 
drinks. The most successful menus are those that contain only 
three or four varieties of food, and those in season and perfect. 
The regular, conventional course dinner consisting of a dozen 

138 



FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

or more dishes, is in truth a coarse and disorganizing custom, 
an abomination and a contamination for the individual and for 
society, laying a foundation for all kinds of digestive troubles, 
colds, pneumonia, etc., the result of retained poison. Simplicity 
in diet should be made one of the most important factors in 
education. Not by any means should this be understood as 
eliminating the sesthetic, or the beauty element of the table. 
In fact more time can be devoted to the serving and the stand- 
ard of the service generally, if less is consumed in a compli- 
cated kind of cooking that requires even a foreign language as 
a menu to further carry out the spirit of uncertainty. One 
spends hours in preparing and cooking at length a "made dish" 
that in most cases would be far wiser for health and efficiency's 
sake to serve its separate ingredients, in as beautiful a shape 
as possible, but in natural form, giving every care to the value 
of flavor. 

One of the signs of bad cooking is to have the flavors, or 
odors, escape in any way during the process. A kitchen from 
which emanates such odors as justly take on the name of smell, 
is either presided over by ignorance, or provided with inade- 
quate equipment. When it is more fully realized that assimila- 
tion and good digestion not only wait upon appetite and good 
food, but upon one's disposition, state of mind, and psychic con- 
dition, generally, more thought and attention will be given to 
the flavor, the beauty, and the vital charm of the food, as it 
brings together the family at table. 

Nutrition and vitality are dependent upon the humors, or 
juices and secretions of the bod}', — upon their consistency and 
free flow at the right moment. A beautiful and luscious peach 
makes the mouth water ; the charm of the fruit, before it even 
enters the mouth, is having its efl'ect upon the flow and quality 
of saliva that is making ready to receive it. A portion is taken, 
and the three salivary glands on either side of the mouth pour 
six tiny streams of essential liquid about the tongue. If the 
peach is properly masticated — that is, chewed twenty or thirty 
times — and consciously mixed with a flow of saliva from the 
back of the throat, from five to ten times at least, the mechan- 
ical operation for perfect digestion is well started. If to this 

1S9 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

is added from start to finish the appreciation that the airiform 
quahty, or flavor of the mouthful during mastication, is what 
feeds and makes for better brain and nerve condition, and that 
the enjoyment of its flavor, or pleasure of the morsel in the head 
is necessary for the proper flow of secretions all along the ali- 
mentary tract, the right beginning in how and what to eat has 
been made. For this same peach entering the body as a little 
piece of fruit is going to be walking around as you to-morrow, 
but it cannot without leaving ill effects in its wake, unless the 
right start has been made in the head. The chewing, the reflex 
movement, or deliberate mixture of saliva from the front of the 
palate, so that the six streams may play properly, is the part 
that each consumer must play consciously in order that the 
juices of the stomach be made to flow, and proper action or 
churning there, be the occasion of the flow and action of the 
juices of the intestines, so that after all, if the peach digest, it 
is about fifteen parts you, to one of peach even at the start. 

How to eat is one of the prime knowledges that should be 
practiced continually and handed down to the child at the ear- 
liest possible age. To acquire an appetite for any special thing 
is a common experience. How much easier is it to acquire a 
right and natural method of eating? Instead of that, we refine 
our foods until not only the substance is gone, but a pap-like 
consistency makes chewing and all it means a forgotten art, 
and our food passes with too great speed into an unprepared 
and inefficient stomach paralyzed to a degree. The result is 
"The Great American Disease" Nervous Indigestion. We have 
given no time to feeding our nerves through the natural avenue 
of the air channels in the head. There are certain foods that 
have little value except while in the mouth, and are apt to rather 
disturb the other localities of digestion, such as the radish for 
instance, and the garlic, but tremendously useful for the nerv- 
ous system and the feeding of the air glands. 

Again, food for the stomach from which the circulation gen- 
erally is supplied, should be in liquid fonn. How important 
therefore it is that the mechanical action in the mouth should 
reduce it as nearly as possible to that state from which the blood 
can be rightly supplied. That it may not become a poor, tired, 

140 



FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

overworked organ only improperly fulfilling its function, for 
"The stomach is the kitchen of the soul." It does its best to 
overcome the sins of the mouth and to make ready the right 
conditions for the lower digestion in the intestines, but the poor 
appendix, the guardian of this area, is telling a sad tale of 
abuse higher up. It in turn does its best, standing on watch 
at the valve, and pumping and lubricating as heroically as it 
can, that the overcrowding of material may be made to pass 
safely up the great colon, but how wickedly often it is made to 
succumb and go to the wall, leaving the poor third digestion 
hopelessly in the dark. If one ate only when hunger demands, 
when the mouth waters at the thought of a crust, and then mas- 
ticated and fed the brain and nerve as it should be fed, all the 
other automatic processes of assimilation would be safe and 
orderly, and the blind appendix would stand as exquisite aid 
to the end. As a general rule people eat too much, but as it 
is not always wise to make sudden changes, the safest and most 
pleasant course to take is to overeat if we will, of the lighter 
class of foods. Meats, fish, rich sauces, cheese, fried things, 
fermented breads, pastry and liquors should give way to vege- 
tables and whole grain cereals ; these in turn to fruits, olive oil, 
and honey. If one finally overeats at all, let it be of the class 
which includes fresh ripe berries and fruit juices. If eaten alone 
these will be found to produce the least ill effect. 

Physical and mental efficiency, absence of that tired feeling, 
and colds, and a good circulation, are the best signs of proper 
nutrition. The mere following of fashion in food has not only 
played havoc with the human body, but with the pocketbook, 
and with the home-maker's peace of mind. 

How often we hear even the devoted mother and wife say: 
"I do not object to any of the work, or responsibility of the 
home, excepting the constant three meals a day and all that 
they mean." In the last part of the phrase is the trouble. 
"All that they mean" in the demand of custom and the indi- 
vidual requirement of her household. If it but went for health 
and strength, there would be a very different feeling, but she 
usually knows that all is not well, and her soul is unsatisfied. 
Yet to suddenly serve to an unprepared family an efficient 

141 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

breakfast, even ever so beautifully, would probably start a domes- 
tic riot. Imagine how the average modern husband would re- 
spond to an early morning meal, even elaborately served in his 
boudoir, of two unleavened cakes, a cup of orange juice and 
honey, a slightly coddled egg covered with a little slippery elm 
bark perhaps, and a bit of yarrow or quasha root to chew in- 
stead of a cigar. Would his temper be right for business that 
day? Even though we are sure his mind and nerve would be, 
provided he could be made to enjoy and properly partake of 
his breakfast. 

Again, a luncheon served to the children of baked potato, 
skins and all, covered with the best of olive oil, and eaten with 
unfermented bread and nut sandwiches, and a bit of fruit, would 
hardly satisfy the boy and girl who have been accustomed to 
meat, soup, fish, a salad and pie, all at the same meal, and yet 
surely the first menu would make better bone and muscle and 
healthier boys and girls, but we must first come to the convic- 
tion through education, before we can gracefully bring our 
husbands, children and guests to a table prepared in this 
fashion. 

Yet it should surely interest every woman in the land to help 
on the great crusade for health and efficiency in which nothing 
is more basically important and readily controllable than food. 
Of course proper rest, exercise and mental attitude have their 
place, but all these are put in order and greatly depend upon 
food. Efficiency means getting the most ideal results through 
a method in which there is the least waste. Can we say as a 
class, that the feeding of our families, or ourselves, is on an 
efficient basis? Even where health appears to abound, a weak 
spot is usually an accompaniment, and after all, a body is only 
as strong as its weakest organ. Can we not, therefore, become 
more positively efficient as women, responsible for the feeding 
and nourishing of the race, by first understanding real food 
values and the actual dangers of our present food supply, sec- 
ond by knowing and practicing with ever increasing skill, the 
method of cooking that makes for highest life values, third by 
serving the food in such a way as to charm and delight those 
who partake, and fourth by becoming consumers of high un- 

142 



FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE 

derstanding and thereby regulating the evils under which right 
existence is not possible? (the commercial practice of denatur- 
ing in order that food shall meet the requirement of the local 
market, and keep at least for a year as shipped, the danger- 
ous adulterating with chemicals totally unfit for food, and 
the unsanitary exposure to contamination.) It is the consumer, 
the woman of the home that must regulate these matters. Nei- 
ther the market men, nor the manufacturers should be expected 
to supply aught save such products as meet the demand. The 
women must become as "wise as serpents and as gentle as 
doves," if they would guard their loved ones from the ravages 
of the present wild combinations in our "daily bread," and 
rightly and honestly perform their first and most sacred func- 
tion as intended by the Creator — the function of conserving 
and organizing Life. 



143 



CHAPTER XV 



SYSTEM IN HOUSEKEEPING 



"System, . . . an organized body of truth, or truths, arranged under 
one and the same idea, which idea is as the life or soul that 
animates all those truths " 

How often do we hear the good housewife declare with that 
well-known air of personal satisfaction : "You know system is 
everything." "I have a regular time for doing each thing, and 
I see that nothing interferes with its being done at the ap- 
pointed hour." Visions of having to rise in the morning 
"whether or no," of eating and sleeping by the clock, of clean- 
ing because of its being cleaning day, rather than from its 
being actually necessary, and in short carrying out rules with a 
mechanical regularity that instead of making for real efficiency 
and the right sort of atmosphere, has a deadening effect, in sac- 
rificing inclination and mood to a cut-and-dried schedule and 
routine. The aesthetic little home-maker, on the other hand, 
will say : "It is impossible for me to be systematic." "It's no 
use; I've tried and tried, and if anything, I grow worse." 
"Just the day I set apart to do some particular thing, is the 
time of all times that I must write a poem, practice a new piece, or 
see a friend. Oh ! I know I never can keep house if I do not 
learn to be systematic, but I begin to despair." 

Now what is it that these two types of home builders are 
after.'' Is it not a smoothly running establishment, where 
pleasure, comfort, ease, leisure and peace are easily possible? 
Each believing system to be the essential element, but with what 
strange conception ; instead of life first, and system as a com- 
prehensive plan for its expression, it is system that would con- 
trol the whole. Again, one frequently meets the woman who 
having had her share of home discouragement, vehemently re- 
sponds : "Don't talk system to me : I had it drummed into me 
at home until I felt myself a regular machine. I never did any- 

144 



SYSTEM IN HOUSEKEEPING 

thing worth while until I got away from that monotonous 
grind." And there, seems to me, rests the difficulty. System is 
not the routine it appears to be, and is so often mistaken to be ; 
but something far bigger and more complex than the aver- 
age house-worker has been able to put into practice. One in- 
stinctively recognizes its importance, even when restricted by 
the understanding of its meaning. But let us see if there is 
not a way of making it both an inspiration and a guide to the 
sort of home we would all have, were our hopes and desires re- 
duced to the last analysis. 

System is merely a working basis in which some one idea, or 
purpose, leads all the others of the same group. In other 
words, a whole plan, or scheme, consisting of many parts con- 
nected in such a manner as to create a chain of mutual depend- 
encies. Any method of arranging in orderly sequence, with due 
co-ordination and relative subordination of the several parts. 
Order becomes the result, or the harmonious arrangement of the 
parts. The design of an intelligent agent, or the suggestion of 
such design. And method, merely the way of proceeding, or 
the process of arriving. Rules, meaning certain requirements 
and regularity the even disposition of acts. There may, how- 
ever, be no suggestion of purpose in regularity, hence it is less 
intelligent and more binding than order. Indeed there Is much 
regularity without order, and the most perfect order Is often 
secured with the least regularity. The same may be said of sys- 
tem. One frequently finds a regularity In system that Is de- 
structive of the value of the whole. But most so-called Systems, 
unless one is conscious of the live principles Involved, tend to 
make routine workers. A monotonous and habitual doing of 
the same thing day after day in the same way. There Is a rest- 
lessness and a creative side of the human mind and heart that 
wearies of, and Is hostile to the habit of routine. On the other 
hand, most people find It all too easy to drop Into a rut and do 
things from habit Induced by circumstances. As George Eliot 
said : "That beneficent harness of routine which enables silly men 
to live respectably, and unhappy men to live calmly." However, 
like all other elements. In Its proper place it Is Invaluable, giving 
the day a balance that makes time dependable, but when mistaken 

145 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

for System it becomes a lifeless and uninspired master. Enough 
has been said to realize that any system worthy the name should 
stand for and include a sort of philosophy of life. There is 
no particular merit in housekeeping, no matter how spotless the 
premises, or perfect the appointments, unless it is done with the 
highest human purpose in mind of which the worker is capable. 
The motive must be strong and fine, for Motive after all is 
King. One desire leads in all undertaking, whether Ave will, or 
not. One star guides our steps. Does it not behoove us then to 
hitch the housekeeping wagon to the right star ; to the one idea 
which shall assimilate all the others in the domestic system? 
Determine what shall be the motive, and think out a plan of 
procedure, for to go blindly or indefinitely along, — for in- 
stance, believing table-cloths and linen bedspreads and shams 
are to be preferred to a little money left over at the end of the 
month for pleasure or cultural purposes, an entree, to an hour's 
musical or physical practice, and a clean house at the expense 
of health and amiability, — is to be weakly led by an artificial 
system which dictates much falseness in its premise. These 
things and their like may be most important to the individual. 
The point is to let us be sure that they are, by starting from 
the right principles and intelligently following a natural system 
founded upon true elementary propositions, and the constructive 
laws of nature, for an accepted principle becomes a power, the 
cause from which all our acts proceed; an ever-present, active, 
fundamental cause that of necessity produces certain results. 
The Bible says : "Take no heed of what ye shall eat, or what ye 
shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed, for the Lord 
knoweth ye have need of all these things." 

It is, however, very positive in first laying down the law, that 
one shall "Love the Lord with all thy heart, with all thy mind, 
and with all thy soul, and thy neighbour as thyself." This be- 
comes then the governing principle, and results in action. 

The principles in home-making, to which I believe we should 
devote ourselves, is the family's best development — including the 
prosperity of each individual member. The children should 
have no more permanent consideration than the parents ; the 
older people than the young; the public or society than the 

146 



SYSTEM IN HOUSEKEEPING 

hearthstone; wealth than health, or appearance than reality 
generally — both are necessary — all should make up the grow- 
ing home. We boil down the bones to their very essence. We 
should learn to as skillfully boil down the usual systems of 
housekeeping to the very juice of right principle, for the 
standard is as we make it. No two homes need or can be alike 
any more than two persons, but the principles and the system 
upon which they are operated may be as like as the food we 
eat, the air we breathe, the wood we burn, or the water we 
drink. In fact, there is nothing that makes for so wonderful 
and beautiful variety of effect, as to center the cause in the 
deepest, truest, simplest and most natural of elements. In- 
stead of Mrs. Grundy dictating what one shall do and when 
one shall do it, the very heart of nature prompts the move, be- 
cause all psychological law is bent that way and right effects 
must follow right causes. Flexibility of system is the result ; 
live, smooth, active, efficient management is developed. A clean 
home, a healthy home, a beautiful and a happy home, become 
the controlling principles, and a system whereby these parts 
may be made to co-ordinate and subordinate themselves one to 
another, as the occasion demands, is freighted with a greater 
object and promise than the idea that the home is builded upon 
the work being done on time by demand, and in the traditional 
way. 

In such a mechanical routine wash-day truly takes on the 
atmosphere of "Blue Monday" and Saturday becomes a day 
that cries out for rest. Splendid! of course it is to keep up to 
time and be regular in the common necessities of every-day liv- 
ing. The important thing is that the thought should be right 
in the meaning of the days of the week, so that each becomes a 
creative period productive of housework development, instead 
of housework routine. Just before the opening of the Station, 
the writer realizing that much of the cost of living and the dis- 
satisfaction in the Kitchen was the result of the passing away 
of the old ideals and the need of a new point of view, wondered 
how best the idea of professionalizing housework and home- 
making could be practically demonstrated as to be understood 
by all — because of the common-place standard — while she, 

147 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

with others, had the feehng that this could and must be done, it 
was very vague as to just what plan would be acceptable and 
make for advancement and simplicity, rather than any added 
burden and complexity. Everywhere the woman seemed to think 
that the profession of home-making had too many "variables" 
to be unified, or classified. No general system could possibly 
apply because each home was a law unto itself, with human 
nature as the controlling factor: two points — of all others — 
that cried out as most needing such a system. After a particu- 
larly long evening's discussion upon the subject, a meditative 
night and a thoughtful day, she was passing through the house 
and in so doing noticed a number of pamphlets and papers 
among the evening mail, on the receiving table. Leisurely turn- 
ing over one of these, she was attracted by the title : "The 
Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor." This was in 
February, 1911, just after Mr. Frederick Taylor's famous ad- 
dress before the Society of Mechanical Engineers on "The Effi- 
ciency Method." She opened the little book, reading here and 
there a phrase, and verily it seemed like an answer from above. 
Here were the very elements and factors put together and into 
practice, and made to apply to the same number of variables 
that the evening before had been discussed as not practical ; 
even that all-impeding thing, human nature, came into its own 
through the application of psychology, and was happy to take 
its place in the industry of production. Why was this not just 
what we were looking for.^^ A system devised by man for man's 
pursuits, but equally applicable to woman, and prophetic of a 
unity of purpose. Before the evening was over, she had read 
the little book through twice, with a most critical mind and a 
determination to discover if there was anything involved there- 
in that would not apply to housework. It all seemed to fit beau- 
tifully as far as it went, but more was needed. Hence to find 
Mr. Taylor, to learn more, to see the operation of the system, 
and to discover from whence other light might be had, became 
the effort of the rest of the season. The Experiment Station 
opened in June, and by that time a real foundation had been 
laid in the application of Scientific Management to the home, 
which has steadily grown in value and proportion ever since, 

148 



SYSTEM IN HOUSEKEEPING 

until most of the leading efficiency experts of the country see 
the revolutionized home of the future, as well as the shop and 
great corporation. After all, there is nothing new or strange 
in this system. The same kind of Management has been used 
since the beginning of time by most and various successful en- 
terprises, but it was supposed to be the result of the talent of 
some great personality, opportunity, or mysterious circum- 
stance. Good managers, like good actors, had to be bom, not 
made. We now know through the careful mastering of a defi- 
nite technique, they can be made, if but a tendency be born. 
Herein is the hope of the housewife of the times. She who no 
longer is schooled in mother's ways, raised in the subject and 
looked upon as a person of talent and standing, if she succeeds. 
The "tendency" for home-making is deep down in the breast of 
nearly every woman in the land, if she could succeed in fully 
realizing her life's purpose in that field of effort, but with house- 
work condemned to everlasting drudgery, scorned and pushed 
upon the shoulders of the most ignorant of workers, a hundred 
years behind the times in theory and practice, absorbing one's 
entire life, and giving in return so precious little for all the 
time, money and strength devoted to it, is it any wonder she has 
turned — when finding herself no genius in the art — to what has 
seemed more fertile spheres of action.'* 

Scientific Management is the return-home-call to Nature's 
own. In its application to the profession of home-making is to 
be found every answer to the work-a-day longing of the human 
soul. It is not simple or easy, but it is worth while, for it gives 
big return for every serious effort made, and effort is the law 
of life. While the writer believes every woman interested should 
read Mr. Taylor's books, and while she was enormously helped 
by his further masterful Instruction, for the purposes of house- 
work and the more definite and simple use of this system, the 
twelve principles as laid down by Harrington Emerson are the 
ones to be discussed in this Chapter, as best fitted to the feminine 
mind, In the developing of domestic engineering and household 
technology. They are, however, founded upon, and harmonious 
with, the four great basic and underlying principles of the 
father of this Science — i.e. : 

149 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

1st. The Scientific way of doing everything. 

2d. The Scientific selection of the workman. 

3d. The Scientific training of the workman. 

4th. The intimate, friendly co-operation between the Manage- 
ment and the Workers. 

The First making for science, not rule of thumb. The Sec- 
ond, for harmony, not discord. The Third, for co-operative 
development, not "machine" workers. The Fourth, for maxi- 
mum output, in place of restricted output, and the development 
of each man to his greatest efficiency and prosperity. 

While, as Mr. Taylor says, there is no new or startling fact 
brought to light in this that was not known to someone in the 
past. Scientific Management does not necessarily involve any 
great invention, or the discovery of new facts. It does, how- 
ever, involve a certain combination of elements which have not 
existed in the past, namely : old knowledge so collected, analyzed, 
grouped and classified into laws and rules, that it constitutes a 
Science, accompanied by a complete change in the mental atti- 
tude of the worker as well as of those on the side of the manage- 
ment, toward each other, and toward their respective duties and 
responsibilities. Also a new division of the duties between the 
two sides, and a co-operation to an extent that is impossible 
under the philosophy of the old management. And even all of 
this in many cases could not exist, without the help of mechanism 
which has been gradually developed. It is no single element, 
but rather this whole combination that constitutes Scientific 
Management. 

So it is with the twelve principles of Mr. Emerson. It is the 
combination of them all, applied to each undertaking that pro- 
duces the results. For convenience sake, we will list these prin- 
ciples and their application to the subject of this Chapter, and 
outline how they may affect the whole standard of housework. 

12 PRINCIPLES APPLICATORY 

1. Ideals. One's aim, idea, object, or purpose in Home- 

making and in each of its sub-divisions. The 
clear conception of the meaning of home, and 
the practical possibilities of realization. A plan 
of organization to produce this "ideal." 
150 



SYSTEM IN HOUSEKEEPING 

2. Common- How it is to be accomplished. Consideration of 
sense and the resources — of all sorts — the responsibilities, 
Judgment, the regulations, and the realities. 

3. Competent The best available information and instruction 
Counsel. on all sides. The study of theory and the com- 
parison of practice. Good advice and sugges- 
tion. In short, general and special education. 

4. Discipline. A positive and permanent carrying out of the 

plan that has been adopted. The following of 
certain rules that have been laid down for the 
common good of the individual and the group, 
and the harmonious compliance with natural 
law. 

5. The Fair To live and let live. Fairness and freedom in 
Deal. all things. The element of justice tempered 

with intelligent understanding and co-operative 
sympathy. The each for all and all for each 
idea, and the encouragement of every such spon- 
taneous response. 

6. Records, The keeping, gathering and making of all rec- 
reliable, im- ords that may in any way simplify the running 
mediate, ac- of the home. Books, bills, checks, receipts, card 
curate. indexes, score cards, catalogues, addresses ; in 

short, all and any information pertaining to the 
house, the family, or the individual member. 

7. Planning Next to the first principle, this one is perhaps 
and Dis- the most important. Here is where Time and 
patching. Motion-study count. Proper routing and pur- 
chasing. A knowledge of what, why, and how. 
The use of instruction, and the general head- 
work that makes for production and the easy 
running of the home. 

151 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 



8. Standards The quality of work is considered in this ele- 
and sched- ment. The skill and art sense with which it is 
ules. realized. The difference between schedule and 

dispatching is that the former is a bigger and 
more definite outline ; the latter the immediate 
accomplishment. 

9. Standard- The construction of the house, the furnishing, 
ized Condi- the equipment, utensils and devices. The mate- 
tions. rials and tools generally are associated with this 

principle. The environment, and the status of 
the family and of each member thereof. The 
static condition of all things considered, which 
by the way does not stay put for a moment, but 
is ever progressing toward the perfection which 
is never reached but "ever becoming." 

10. Standard- The way of doing things. Action and move- 
ized Opera- ment. Its quality and its cultivation. Through 
tions. this principle not only good work may be at- 
tained, but personality may be developed into 
its very flower. Greater and greater skill. 
Higher and higher reflex result. 

11. Written It is the business and desire of all professions 
standard. and industries to give to the world the result 
Practice of their experiences, research and inventions. 
Instruc- Why should it not also be so with housework? 
tions. History and records of home-making would be 

quite as valuable to humanity and civilization 
as that of any other phase of life. 

12. Efficiency. Just and healthy appreciation of all effort. 
Reward. "When this great principle of reward is woven 

into an efficiency struggle, it pushes irresistibly 
upwards. The form it takes is not essential, 
but if it is disregarded, even the best weary of 
well-doing," says Mr. Emerson. 

Anyone who cares to give careful thought to these twelve 
principles and all they include, cannot fail to realize the vast- 

152 



SYSTEM IN HOUSEKEEPING 

ness and importance of their meaning. They may be changed, 
far better applied, or more clearly illustrated, but the fact re- 
mains that they are to the profession of home-making, what the 
multiplication-table is to mathematics — a standard of fact and 
a system of operation that alone insures and encourages the 
most rapid growth compatible with one's intelligence. To 
master these twelve principles and to thoroughly digest their 
meaning, and act upon them, is a guarantee that home-making 
will progress economically and productively. It may be slowly 
and with many discouragements, but once comprehended, one 
can never neglect or forget them. They are as fine seed sown 
in fertile soil. The natural tendency will be to mature. 

The Conservation of the Home is clearly the business of the 
Modern Woman, and Scientific Management is we believe the 
only comprehensive, executive plan for her to follow. The 
only technique for the proper accomplishment of this end is to 
assiduously practice with these organized elements of success, 
applying them not only to the home and family, but to her own 
individual life. Perhaps the greatest field of production yet to 
be opened is the systematic application of Scientific Manage- 
ment to the personal life of man. Its possibilities here are 
incalculable. 



153 



CHAPTER XVI 



SKILLED LABOR 



"Labor broad as the earth, has its summit in heaven" 

Among the many thousand letters that have come to the 
Housekeeping Station, the following is a characteristic sample 
of a number received from house-maids who are in actual serv- 
ice. Although all states of dissatisfaction are expressed, from 
the natural discontent of having had too much done for them, 
or rather, the result of unwise privileges — which is a common 
mistake — ^to the most heartless severity ; this one has been se- 
lected, because it bespeaks a medium sense of the situation, even 
though the writer seems to feel her particular misfortune in the 
kind of mistresses selected : 

"Mrs. Frank A. Pattison: 

"Dear Madam: — I read in the Bkly. Times the other morning 
how you and some clubwomen are trying to solve the servant prob- 
lem And it is about time some you ladies, have thought of the 
servants. I will tell you how solve the servant problem, as I am 
one myself and have had several experiences with some family and 
if some thing would be done for us who have to slave in house- 
worck. They are some who gives us more work than we should 
do and we never get a minute's rest. If should happen to see sitting 
down when you really get through for the day which might be 
about nine in the evening. They have all ways some thing for you 
to do. I do think we should have a few minutes to rest as any 
body else. The other things are for instance if they have any 
thing for thir meals and thurs is nothing left you have to go with 
out any thing to eat after a hard day's work, what do think about 
that. Your simple treated like a little poddle dog that's the way 
you get treated. I dont think it should be done we are human 
begins and made by the lord You fre not to share any thing like at 
all. Only in tlie kitchen from the kitchen to attic probly not a 
decent bed to lay your tired bones on. You are not even to recive 
your friend in the house for instance. Where I am working I have 
to receved my friend on the moving pictures as I am twenty-four 
years old. But at the same it is not a right place to receive your 

154 



SKILLED LABOR 

comany, and are many girls that have to do that You are not 
even allowed to talk or laugh unless it is above a whisper. And if 
you should laugh loud, you are told it is not your house. You 
are simple treated like if you were nothing. It is no disgrace if we 
have to work for others. But ther should be a law where we would 
be treated better than we are. It makes a girl discourage some 
times that you dont know what to do with you self. And to have 
less hours and more time for our selves and then it would makes us 
feel better when we are consider something. And if you want 
to go any where you have to beg before you get. What life is it 
for any body to live like that if they were spoken in unkind way it 
would hurt feeling terrible. So I am sending a idea so you can 
solve the problem. I don't mean they are all the same. I never 
struck a good kind lady yet. I hope you could published it in the 
evening Journal some time this week so I can read the answerd or 
what you think about it as I will very interest in it. I favor with 
Woman Suffarated." 

Sent by A. M. 

We cannot help agreeing with this poor girl that "there 
should be a law." Perhaps not belonging in the statute books, 
but at least in the social order. A custom and standard that 
would regulate the hours, the treatment and the work of house- 
servants. Never, since the beginning of the world, have pri- 
vate employers been safe and humane masters as a class. The 
joy of having somebody to "cuff and kick," somebody upon 
whom to throw the burden of the day, somebody who will look 
up to one in admiration, fear, or humble need, has forever been 
a temptation greater than human weakness could rise above, 
and so it has become a necessity from time to time to make 
public questions of the kind and form of private relationship 
between employer and employee, and settle the discontent by 
law or through organization. 

The time is here when the servant girl should have the 
thoughtful, careful, business-like attention of economists, psy- 
chologists and educators generally, that the mistress and maid 
problem may be solved — as it can be — with advantage to both 
employer and employee for it is a question not only of human 
concern, but of fundamental social and national importance. 
Even though a very small percentage of people employ servants 
at all, the standard of housework, and therefore the operation 

155 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

of the home generally — the family demand and the supply — 
largely depend upon the status of the few who do employ them. 

While we have a wonderfully live interest in home economic 
education spreading rapidly over the country, those who are 
graduated in this course are not our house-workers. The schools 
and colleges contribute writers and lecturers on the subject 
from a variety of sides ; teachers and institutional managers, 
or those who make it a partial occupation or avocation. The 
student of engineering goes into "the works" and learns how 
to handle every part of the machinery, proving his knowledge 
by completing his education in practice. He learns to master 
the situation step by step until finally he is given responsibility 
in management and naturally directs a plant of his own. Even 
so it should be with the house-worker. After graduation she 
should go into a home and not only do the things she has 
learned to do, in actual relation with the family, but she should 
have the practice of meeting responsibility, by being the only 
one upon whom the running of the house depends. A month 
here, or a month there, as cook, or house-maid ; a year some- 
where else, learning to meet all kinds of domestic emergencies 
and to supply all sorts of domestic needs, is surely a sane and 
practical program for the would-be home-manager, which posi- 
tion most women expect some day to suddenly be called to fill. 
The old way of training the daughters by looking at the moth- 
er's ways and habits, not only does not work any more, but it is 
unscientific in the extreme, furnishing at best but a rule-of- 
thumb method that falls from under, when the laboratory, or 
real principle, is applied; and in point of fact the daughter 
finds the study of the daily duties about the house too monoto- 
nous, menial and unattractive generally, to hold her attention 
through this means, so that while we have a large number of 
educated home-economic students who must earn their living 
at some business or other, and a very much larger demand for 
house-workers than is even numerically met — efficiency playing 
no part — they are not doing housework, simply for the reason 
that it is unstandardized and unorganized and does not appeal 
to them as a bearable occupation. 

A business class of men and women for housework purposes, 

156 



SKILLED LABOR 

means the creating of a demand for skilled labor. In order to 
develop such a demand, it must be first proved that it would be 
economic in practice. While everybody knows there is no ele- 
ment in industry so costly as cheap and ignorant labor, the 
housewife frequently goes so far afield in methods of manage- 
ment as not only to be ignorant herself, but to pay high wages 
for ignorance in others. 

If enough people could be persuaded that to keep the win- 
dows, or floors of a house clean, the furniture or metal polished, 
the clothes spotless and mended, the rooms in order, and the 
cooking healthfully and economically attended to ; that the 
medium of experts in these various requirements positively pays 
in dollars and cents, and at the end of the year would give a 
margin, — on the principle of supply in electric current, or gas 
for which you only pay for the actual time in use, — public 
ofl^ces would shortly be opened to supply skilled labor for all 
home needs in every community where servants are now kept. 

The skilled servant — and there are many of them — would 
find herself, or himself, infinitely better off if employed by such 
a bureau or corporation of labor. Contracts would be made 
with the head of the bureau, as with the manager or superin- 
tendent of a responsible institution, and not with the workman 
as now. All complaints, orders and suggestions would be re- 
ferred to the Head. A choice as to the personnel of the work- 
man would be recognized whenever possible, and the particular 
requirements of each client, or customer, would be considered, 
although eccentricities in the manner of doing work would be 
discouraged, as there is but one best way of doing everything. 
Hours of service could readily be adjusted as regards all clean- 
ing, renovating, laundrying and mending. Nursing or child- 
attendance where there are small children, would have to have 
special attention to guarantee the supplying of an attendant 
at the moment required, that it might be as regular and de- 
pendable as the milkman's visit in the morning, or that of the 
baker or the Ice-man. 

Professional playmates could be furnished at short notice; 
young girls who would help children to play in a constructive 
way, skilled in telling stories and who would encourage little 

157 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

dramatic or kindergarten efforts. Again, there is no particular 
reason why a day nursery should be confined to the children 
of the poor. A children's house, or room, might be a part 
of every community, where a child could be sent with profit 
to the little one. This might even be established in connec- 
tion with the Bureau. 

The professional child nurse is already with us. The dif- 
ference would be that she need not necessarily have her three 
meals and sleep under the same roof with her charge. She 
might, or might not, as the need determined. But it should 
be possible for any mother requiring help in the care of her 
child, to be able to call a skilled person when needed and feel 
reasonably sure that the child would be better off for having 
come in contact with such a helper. Something she cannot feel 
assured now with the average nurse-girl. 

As to cooking, serving, and dishwashing. The many vari- 
eties of devices of the fireless cooker type, thermos and thermal 
bottles, jars, jugs, and dishes, heating and cooling cabinets, 
etc., make it a practical plan to have meals prepared hours 
in advance and kept perfectly well until the time desired. Even 
the serving can be minimized by helping one's self from the 
nearest possible point of placement, which may be at the table, 
or just outside in the butler's pantry. This would adapt itself 
to a buffet form of serving, or the using of a table and dumb- 
butler as incorporated at the Station. Ingenuity and inven- 
tion has not begun to spend itself here, and fashion also is ever 
ready to lend a ready hand. 

But the elimination of the waitress is not the idea. One 
could engage half a dozen, or more, if one chose, skilled to 
requirement, even to the extent of providing music and the 
dance between the courses, or anything else that might meet 
the custom of society. They would not be servants, however, 
in the old sense, but professional aids in service. Skilled work- 
ers in this particular department, living under their own roof 
as professional nurses now live, feeding themselves, and com- 
ing to their post as any other business girl goes to her occu- 
pation. 

Where the least service is demanded, the dishes could be 

158 



SKILLED LABOR 

placed in the dishwashing machine, to await the coming of 
the morning assistant. The food in the food cupboard, or ice- 
box, and the table made ready for the next meal in the short- 
est possible space of time. 

You may say: why so change our present habits and cus- 
toms.'' Why the confusion of all these different workers com- 
ing into the house, and the expense of establishing such a 
corporation of labor, and paying the prices that would be de- 
manded by skilled people ? Our answer is : we are already pay- 
ing unwarrantedly high prices to labor, for the privilege of 
living in our own homes. Wages, rental, heat, light, food, 
breakage and waste bring the average cost per hour for the 
general housework girl from twenty to thirty cents every hour 
in the day, proving that from fifty to eighty cents an hour 
might be paid with profit for the skilled labor employed for a 
limited number of hours. 

The expense of establishing the Bureau would be readily 
borne by any capital awaiting investment, just so soon as a 
proper demand arrives, or by a co-operative stock company 
of those interested to have such labor available. Even by a 
City itself, where one is found to be suflUciently advanced and 
progressively governed. 

The confusion and uncertainty of the different workers com- 
ing into a house at different hours, would be infinitely less than 
that now in vogue, of following up each servant to see that he 
or she does the work as one would have it done, keeping their 
tools and premises in repair, supervising and supplying the 
servants' table, adjusting their differences, taking the moral 
responsibility of their welfare as members of the family and 
the psychological strain of living day after day and month 
after month in the house with the same inefficient and unrelated 
social element. // one is lucky enough to have them stay, which 
is the most confusing point of all, inasmuch as constant chang- 
ing of servants has become a necessity, statistics from intelli- 
gence offices having convinced us that the average length of 
time a servant stops in one place is two weeks. So that a mat- 
ter of change is not so much a choice as a necessity. 

There is a "Servant problem" with us, that must be met 

159 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

by servant and mistress alike. The latter by the home-maker 
studying more closely the science, the art and the practice of 
managing a home on an efficient basis. Studying and applying 
domestic engineering in all its branches, and realizing that 
skilled labor is merely vntelligent labor, that can accomplish 
in shorter and shorter time, a higher and higher standard or 
quality of work, under progressively better conditions and 
more economic rates, when summed up over a long space of 
time. For whether it be the scrubbing of a floor, or the wash- 
ing of a window, if it is done intelligently, under the best 
standard, it will not only look better and involve less waste, 
but will actually keep clean longer. The floor that is cared for 
in such a way as to minimize the need for scrubbing; that has 
fewer people constantly tramping upon it and is so constructed 
as to draw attention to its beauty and order, does much to 
reduce the shiftless, careless, sloppy manner of working so 
common among the ordinary class of houseworkers, where one 
frequently finds girls who think it necessary to take to their 
hands and knees and scrub the entire kitchen with strength and 
vigor at least once a day, thereby proving that much time is 
wasted in service of this sort. In many homes the floor of the 
kitchen might be magnificent, if the price of such wasted labor 
could be in time applied to the original cost. And so this com- 
parison holds all the way through. The results of the experi- 
ments at the Housekeeping Station in this kind of comparative 
cost with every department of the home, has proved that the 
saving of ignorant and unnecessary labor and waste will easily 
pay for standard conditions and equipment throughout. 

And as to the servant, instead of our being her enemy, as 
she at first believed "The Station" to be, its effort is her best 
friend and future salvation, for it encourages the use of the 
finest housework equipment and tools that can be made, and 
the necessity of having the most perfect kitchen arrangements 
that can be installed. It would abolish all drudgery and long 
hours of labor by condensing into an eight-hour day at least, — 
through scientific management, — all that is essential of the 
sometimes sixteen-hour demand. It would give freedom and 
self-respect to the general housework girl who suffers now 

160 



SKILLED LABOR 

under an unjust social stigma, by giving her a home of her 
own, where independence, or a certain community club-hfe might 
be enjoyed, such as is now the privilege of the trained nurse, 
and by releasing her from that ancient and slave-life form of 
contract, that brings her into the family by the month with all 
her time mortgaged. In other words, it would eliminate from 
society that unfair caste distinction existing as the Servant- 
class, classify the houseworkers as to their ability, and merit 
ushering into other fields those not adapted to standard prac- 
tice in this line of employment, and bring into being a class of 
skilled business-like workers going to their special appoint- 
ments, as a clerk to his office, responsible only for the particu- 
lar work assigned, and in a position to earn far more money 
than when confined to but one house. The only need being to 
prove as can readily be done by most of the servants now so 
employed, and many outside the class who would work in this 
new way, that there is at least one thing that he or she can 
and would like to do better than anything else, and so by 
showing efficiency in this chosen subject and honesty of pur- 
pose, make a new future on a skilled labor basis for the most 
important, the most all-inclusive, and the most beautiful occu- 
pation in the world — Housework that is home-making. 



161 



CHAPTER XVII 



STANDAEDIZATIOif 



"The mind's the standard of the man" 

While the word standardization is a formidable one and 
somewhat technical in sound, its meaning is extremely simple. 
It merely implies knowing what to do, understanding why it 
should be done, and being skilled in how best to accomplish it. 
There have always been those who have practiced with infinite 
pains to make perfect the way of arriving at the highest avail- 
able standards, and yet conditions are never quite the same, 
and a new start with new ideas and new material is ever one's 
privilege and duty. 

To get results, to "make good," to meet every emergency, 
and to make an opportunity of every obstacle, is the only road 
to achievement. 

"To get away with the goods," as the saying goes, is a tem- 
porary and transient, if not a questionable, kind of accomplish- 
ment. 

The scientific and standardized effort to master every detail 
of the situation, to start at the bottom and carefully study 
each element in the process, working in the appointed way until 
a new and better manner of procedure is evolved and finally 
combining all the best ways of the various parts in an effective 
w'orking unit, with each factor definitely placed, is the one 
lasting and profitable method that makes the man, as well as 
the world, move on to bigger things. And without scientific 
practice in how best to move on in this rapid age, one is cer- 
tainly going to be left behind in the race sooner or later, dis- 
couraged and hopeless, if not in worse plight. 

One of the difficulties with the home, as we find It, is its 
lack of a definite aim. It has not gone ahead as swiftly as other 
enterprises with which it is associated because of the absence of 
a sufficiently forceful ideal. It has been the victim of a fast 

162 



i 



STANDARDIZATION 

developing business world that has taken the better part of 
house labor and initiative, and left in turn a serious depression 
in the scale of available home-capital and comfort. 

The American girl can no longer trust to luck at not seeing 
the time when she need cook a dinner, or clean a room, for she 
will probably have to do both, and frequently, before labor 
and capital are at peace, and the "servant problem" becomes a 
thing of the past. 

Does it not behoove her, therefore, of all ages to face the 
situation with some effective tool at her command, such, for in- 
stance, as we find the system of Scientific Management? Apply 
the principles of Efficiency to every department of the house 
and bring it up to the standard of the best known practice in 
each line. 

While it may not be the business of every woman to run 
a home, the study and use of Efficiency standards is unques- 
tionably of the greatest service in any occupation, or even in 
one's personal movements and thought, for after all, the mind 
makes or breaks the life, and the habit of thought that is 
standardized to orderly and constructive action, operating 
around a well-conceived ideal, and moving always upon defi- 
nitely defined principles, with a clear knowledge of the parts 
and their relation to each other, is well worth in any field any 
effort it may cost. 

The standardization of the home begins when one has a 
psychological vision of just what a home should be, and what 
it is possible to make it in each case. It is the realization of 
the kind of atmosphere and surroundings that will unques- 
tionably produce the best citizens and the happiest folk gen- 
erally. It is the practice of moulding conditions in such a 
way as to make for unity and mutual love in each day's hap- 
penings of the family life. This, as the great purpose, is 
brought about not by chance, or even by instinct in these 
days, but by holding fast to the idea that it can be done if one 
only knows how, and then by being willing to "knuckle to" and 
learn, by doing. 

A persevering and ambitious man of ordinary talent has been 
known to build up a great and prosperous business industry, 

163 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

starting with but five dollars. Simply by knowing what he 
wanted to do and having an absorbing reason for doing it, and 
being keenly anxious to learn the how of each factor from the 
very first step, making every dollar guarantee a full return 
for its use. 

The same motive in action is applied where the efficiency 
system is used to standardize a home. The scientific way of 
doing everything, and the scientific training of the workman, 
is brought about by the scientific selection or aSaptation of the 
workman, and then a perfect co-operation of mind, — or man- 
agement, — with body, — or application. 

The home has gone too far afield in its belief in tradition, 
its artificiality, its hectic desire for luxury, and its absorption 
in detail, at the expense of a great definite motive rooted in 
the real and vital purposes of home and individual life. We 
must go back to the source, deep into the heart of things, and 
find an ever new reason for daily routine, if we would not have 
it sink to the deadly level of unlovely happenings. Fortunately 
this can be done, and, by that definite plan of action known as 
Scientific Management. A system, — to sum it up again, — that 
has gathered together all the elements of the past that have 
made for success in human undertaking, classified and analyzed 
them, proved their worth in practice, and simplified them into 
a working form for the common understanding of the multitude, 
so that ultimate success may be the fate of the many, instead of 
the highly gifted few. It is a study that makes for the devel- 
opment of thought and industry, including, as it does, the 
whole man in contact with every variety of material. A knowl- 
edge of values, and the purpose of every undertaking, must 
follow closely in line with all effort to standardize conditions 
and operations. Looked at from this studied point of view, one 
can readily see that the Spring house-cleaning time of the mod- 
ern home would take on a somewhat different meaning. To 
change the atmosphere, by adjusting and renovating the en- 
vironment, has always been the allowed purpose of this annual 
feast, but to create a new atmosphere, standardized to the high- 
est individuality of the home, and brought about by seeing to 
it that conditions, equipment, material, operations and results 

164 



STANDARDIZATION 

are harmoniously adjusted to the real welfare of the family 
and the community of which it is a part, is a performance that 
cannot safely be left to the happening of once a year, or to 
the sole guidance of one member of the household, but must for 
the sake of progress and well-being be the joyous function of 
the entire group, A delightful and perpetual operation. 

Art and instinct tell us that everything one touches and 
everything one uses and sees, should be beautiful. There is no 
more reason for an ugly, or unrightly made tool or house- 
hold fixture, than there is for the building of an ugly chimney, 
or the modeling of an unlovely vase. Use and beauty should 
not occasionally go hand in hand, but should be inseparable 
household elements. Art will not have come into its own, until 
it is made not common-place, but generally appreciated; until 
it means an inspiration to everybody to create what ought to be 
from what is. Until it is a working factor in every man's life. 
Until we all become artists, and the home is moulded into the 
permanent and beautiful cradle of modern art. And as the 
child moves from its cradle enough to ask the why of life, the 
simple philosophy of the home should be able to answer, and 
it will, if proper thought is given to the great why of each 
separate step. The reason of things is not "because," and 
"just because," as many women think, but will be found through 
feeling deep down in the heart of the happening, where the soul 
knows by contact — and not through foolish argument. And 
here again the home should play a most important role, for 
nothing ought to be incorporated and nothing therein done that 
cannot stand the test of why. To "flounder in reasons" — No — 
but rather to know all sides by placing one's self in the midst 
and intuitively knowing the truth to the uttermost parts. 

A thought as to the philosophy of washing on Monday, 
would give many a woman a happier and more peaceful Sab- 
bath. 

And how should the home be run? Science has told us in 
almost every detail. It is no longer an imitation standard of 
the way others do it, but an original output, based upon re- 
search and standard practice instructions. Every theory and 
working idea that is developed in the world at large, is avail- 

165 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

able for the home, for every one of these goes from, and comes 
back into some home. Our mission as home-makers is but to 
adapt them to our use, and add as we will of our own. But 
even after science has told us how, there is a business-like 
manner that must be added; a form of order and movement 
that is pregnant with confidence and ease, with time enough for 
the proper completion of each detail and a true vision always 
of the one thing at hand to be achieved. These four essential 
comer-stones of the house mean a roof builded for the blessing 
of Heaven. For after all the "Best laid plans of mice and 
men" miscarry, when "God disposes." A devotion, therefore, 
to the Plan of Him who made us, and a willingness to abide 
by whatever comes, knowing it is for us the very best thing, 
makes the four sides hold together in an everlasting structure 
of infinite worth, operating through standard human practice 
and standardized to a sense of an ever-present religion, that 
cannot fail to prove itself a shelter in every storm. As Emer- 
son says : 

"Let religion cease to be occasional ; and the pulses of thought 
that go to the borders of the universe, let them proceed from 
the bosom of the Household." 

As family sentiment broadens to community betterment and 
local clannish sentiment into national fellowship, so will the home 
become not only the haven of peace for the individual, but the 
starting point of a practical peace for the world. 



166 



I 



PART II 
THE PERSONAL HOME 



"A home is a spot apart from the world's tempestuous strife; 
'Tis the one great throbbing heart wherein is born new life; 
'Tis the place where love divine should reign supreme with yours. 

and mine. 
Behind its portals must contentment dwell. 
And through its open windows tell 
That joy and peace abide within. 
'Twas thus decreed when God made man 
And moulded woman as his kindred soul, 
That the two might live and lead the world 
Toward love of life at home." 

M. C. N. 



CHAPTER I 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 



"The road to human Freedom is by way of responsibility '* 

If it be true that man's body and mind are moulded by two 
influences, heredity and environment, it is doubly certain that 
the one important element that makes for a right or wrong 
mould is individual initiative. Although this has been vaguely 
recognized from the beginning of time, its freedom of action 
has been curtailed by a variety of influences. Among which, 
was the ancient custom of parental authority that commanded 
how a child should think, act and live generally. The idea being 
that experience and wisdom might be handed down as a com- 
modity, or cloak, to save and protect the younger generation 
from the faults and failures of those gone before. This kind 
of discipline, however, not only did not supply the personal need 
for experience on one's own account, but it raised an army of 
young despots who in turn used their authority to command, 
right and left, keeping the same sort of semblance of ethical 
order by dictating in turn what should and what should not be 
allowed, even naming the length, location and character of the 
line of conduct that should be made the rule for each ; a kind of 
personal action by force. Then the reaction came, when time 
had proved this method intolerable and ineff^ectual, and the child 
was allowed to wander freely in its own environment. Parental 
sternness and the rod were cast aside, and the liberty of license 
in many cases took its place. No restraint and no particular 
self-control were encouraged, until lacking in firmness and self- 
respect, the young folk had no semblance of respect, or rever- 
ence for anything else. Extreme self-will seemed to take the 
place of fear of parental wrath and was little better in result. 
Fortunately we are at the present entering a period when both 
the severity method and the young "do-as-I-please" air, are 
giving way to saner thought and better feeling. 

The discipline of to-day is to rightly adjust one's self to one's 

171 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

own surroundings through a proper study of environment. To 
know the meaning of things, to feel one's self a part of them, 
to understand conditions well enough to want to make them 
better, and to reahze that responsibility is the substance of 
which freedom and individuality are made. This sort of dis- 
cipline that begins with the infant and extends throughout life, 
is limited to no age, or office, sex, or position ; but is established 
as the natural law of obedience for parent and child alike, with 
exchange of confidence and a mutual interest in all the daily 
events. A sort of attitude that brings together the young life 
and the grown-up, as no other age has brought them together, 
and gives sense and vision of what is really meant by "Free- 
dom," in actual practice. 

There seems to be little or no doubt abroad as to the prime 
merit and natural order of the family group. The manner of 
its existence has been the cause of controversy, not the reason, 
for it has passed through the period when too much seemed to 
refer to, or be a part of, the father; to that pathetic age when 
the burden of the whole seemed to fall upon the light and un- 
prepared shoulders of the mother; still on to the time when it 
was declared the Family, and therefore the home exists for the 
child, and back to the original meaning in which the family was 
declared to exist for the good of the family and the welfare of 
other families. 

In this sense it is the individual members that are important, 
old and young, weak and strong, male and female, and the 
ideal family is the one in which all are given an equal chance 
of freedom, through the best opportunity for development, but 
we must get it out of our heads that development stops at any 
appointed age, or time ; school age, parent age, or at the 
grandparent time even. Years are not counted, until one has 
nothing else to count. Development does not stop until one's 
initiative has gone, until one gives up all sense of responsibility, 
all pleasure in study and any hearty effort to improve condi- 
tions, and takes no further joy in progress or maturity, but 
becomes a form of human parasite that is not only unhealthy 
but immoral, a heavy burden upon somebody. The right 
kind of independence developed in the very young, the kind that 

172 



PERSONAL FREEDOM 

knows how to take care of itself by virtue of practice in, and 
understanding of, the surroundings, would do much toward 
eliminating that great dependent class that grows more and 
more helpless in the face of obstacles. As long as mothers take 
pleasure in making helpless babies of their children for the 
sake of coddling and a selfish joy, so long we will have boys 
and girls who depend upon mother, — or somebody else, — for 
every strenuous effort ; and upon society to give them a living 
after the obligation of parent is stopped; and grandparents, 
who will feel their lack of resourcefulness and therefore depend 
upon someone other than themselves, to keep them happy. So 
important is this sense of personal independence throughout 
life's program, that it seems to the writer as if all forms of 
dependence of whatsoever character, should be eliminated, even 
at the cost of a certain species of happiness, or of social con- 
flict. The dependent wife is many degrees less efficient and less 
happy than the one who has been made to feel she is responsible 
for herself, her own manager, and her own master. The wife 
who must run to her husband with each question to settle, who 
fears his decision of her every act, whether it be the purchase 
of a new veil, or the donation of a gift, is not the woman who 
is going to meet the emergency of life's lessons and conditions, 
with anything like the resources at her command that are a part 
of the courageous temperament of her, in whom independence 
has been developed and established from the beginning. And 
the man who would make of his wife a dependent darling, is as 
selfishly inclined, as the woman who would keep her children in 
"that sweet baby age" for an undue period. The way out in 
each case, of course, is a form of education that has as its aim 
self-government and personal freedom in all things ; not as the 
result of independent fortune, or the whimsical following of 
one's own temper in each day's acts, but the inevitable outcome 
of a sense of personal responsibility encouraged through a 
knowledge of the simple working of law, — natural, political, 
social, and psychological. Sooner or later every human being 
must "go it alone," as it were ; must be thrown upon his or her 
own resources. How much wiser then, and kinder in every way 
to prepare each for what is to come. 

173 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

The encouragement of personal freedom, or personal inde- 
pendence, and its right use, seems therefore to the writer to be 
the object of family life; life that is worth to the little group 
just what it is worth to the individual members of the group. 
The sum total of independence and human efficiency that can be 
produced is the substance from which a real kind of domestic 
happiness and loyalty spring. It should therefore be the am- 
bition of each family unit "to live and let live." To be free 
and independent in the control of one's life, one's time, and 
one's self, with the one provision definitely established that 
such freedom shall not interfere with the like freedom of an- 
other. The law of the land is binding : One must act and move 
according to rule in the work-a-day world, going to the right 
and the left as custom dictates. How necessary it is then that 
the proper kind of understanding of such law and thereby a 
ready co-operation therein, shall be a part of each one's train- 
ing in the home. To be forced to do what is not one's sym- 
pathetic inclination, is worse than half doing one's duty, for it 
makes rebellion and weakness ; but to feel free to choose the 
right, or the left, and have every grain of common sense and 
appropriate knowledge inclined toward the right, is to estab- 
lish a strength and a joy in the choosing, that ends in the 
pleasure of co-operation and brings forth a kind of individual 
initiative that is strong for action and productive of more than 
mere existence. Heredity and environment both give way under 
its vital and plastic influence and life becomes more than the 
driver and the driven. There is a pleasure attached to the 
journey from start to finish, that results from taking the road 
of one's own choice, intelligently co-operating with conditions, 
assuming the responsibility of the crowd, and yet seeing to it 
that each individual is free and independent to progress in his 
or her own chosen way. 



174 



CHAPTER II 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FAMILY 

"Nothing endutes hut 'personal qualities " 

It is said that the natural instinct toward individuality, and 
the reproduction of the species, are opposing forces. 

Let us look to the spirit of the family and see if it not only 
proves them complimentary, but dependent upon each other 
for proper vitality and expression. 

Individuality is having- a character all one's own. Not as- 
sumed for oddities' sake, but the result of a central motive in 
feeling, to which everything else is related, and from which 
everything springs. The native desire to extend one's self into 
a larger sense of feeling, to be related to more points of contact, 
and to develop outwardly, even though it be in but a limited 
way, ends in what is called the reproduction of one's self, but in 
reality is it not a more perfect fulfillment of the sense of 
individuality? The wise parent does not live in his or her chil- 
dren, but rather by virtue of having the children to live with, by 
the extension of self into a larger form of sympathy which is 
rather opposed to the idea of both sacrifice and duty; two 
much-overworked virtues kept in the foreground where the 
general thought prevails that parents give up their life when 
the children come. When, instead of giving up, by the putting 
of one's self into another, through the producing of another, it 
is, or ought to be, the larger self, seeking fuller expression, 
unfolding into higher form, ready to die if need be that this 
larger self may survive. 

This is the family looked at from an enlightened-selfish and 
homogeneous standpoint, each seeking, and allowed full sway 
for individual development, each with the feeling of the whole, 
related at all points and forming through contact a more 
definite individuality for each, with the unit of the family as the 
larger order of individual. 

175 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Considered from this angle the human family group becomes 
more than a simple happening to be cared for, as Nature cares 
for the birds, or flowers. Its well-being depends upon its con- 
scious and orderly organization, and the higher and more defi- 
nite the organized effort, the more advanced and useful the 
family becomes. All organization, just as all individuality, 
must center about one idea, or purpose, if it would be effective 
and interesting, and the family no less, should root itself in an 
ideal or object of common understanding and sympathy; this 
may be whatsoever one wills, the thing that is determined by 
force of circumstances, or the thing that one determines by 
family volition ; whatever it is, it should enlist the active sup- 
port of each and every member of the little group. 

As the making of the home is our subject, and as this is the 
logical and psychical interest of all families, let us briefly illus- 
trate the point in question by centering the family in the 
thought of its upkeep, and the joy of home possession. 

If every child could be made to feel that the home was his 
and hers to use, not abuse, to care for as one would care for 
one's own person, to protect and watch over as one would guard 
one's choicest gift, to enjoy as one enjoys the things of one's 
own creation, and to reverence and respect as the most blessed 
condition that life has to offer, such a feeling properly fostered 
would make every purpose of the home a united ambition, — 
provided each member is given the thought that but for his or 
her help it could not exist, and provided the purpose is made 
to appeal to, and attract each and every one concerned. The 
family in this sense takes on a form that is more than an asso- 
ciation, because the social element is prominent and an ex- 
pression far beyond anything suggested by paternalism, or 
even maternalism. 

Permissions and privileges are submerged in common-sense 
and independence. Even the young and helpless are made to 
feel a growing strength in self-reliance and judgment, that 
only the discipline of corporate interests can adequately foster. 
So important is the enlisting of the sympathies and intelligent 
co-operation of the children in the activities of the modem home, 
that the writer suggests from personal experience, the adapta- 

176 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FAMILY 

tion and adoption of the club form of organization. In which 
practically everything that is of mutual concern is put to vote. 
The work involved in the realization is developed as any public 
enterprise, by division into parts, or small committees. The 
officers of such a family club would be either elected, or ac- 
cepted, as the natural position of parent and child would sug- 
gest. In fact the separate identification of President, Secre- 
tary, and Committee member, would not be as important as that 
each office should be efficiently filled. The mother might be 
President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Committee member, all in 
one. Yet the operations would go on, on the basis of not only 
each one having a right to express an opinion, but knowing 
comment, or criticism would be met with the just consideration 
that club ethics direct. All co-operation would be on the basis 
of willingness to do one's part, rather than having Mary do this 
thing for Mother, or John told he must do that before a certain 
hour. The home is Mary's and John's as long as they are a 
part of it, just as the school-house should be the concern of all 
the children. Self-government there, as in the home, is the 
result of having a personal sense of ownership and responsibility. 
There should also be stated times for the family to meet for, say 
weekly discussions, when all subjects of importance should be 
brought before the group, and decisions made as to their solu- 
tion. A simple program, or order of approach of the subjects 
themselves, would naturally develop, and while a course of 
parliamentary law might not be necessary, the essence, or ob- 
ject, of it should be regarded. That is, justice to each, and 
order and ease of operation for all. The father, or mother 
being the chair, when present. The simplest Constitution and 
By-laws might be needed, that would merely state the object of 
the little group, and the rules for such meetings. Such gather- 
ings could in all reverence, be the modem evolution of the 
family-prayer custom, now almost extinct in our land, inasmuch 
as the higher civilization of Nations has made men feel that 
supplication and the beseeching of the Lord for benefits must 
give way to a genuine effort to help one's self by shouldering 
one's own burden and doing one's best in the service of others. 
A religion of daily work, and not of special benefits and privl- 

177 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

leges. An harmonious family life cannot exist in an atmosphere 
of laziness, discontent, or wrangling, which unfortunately is too 
often found in greater or lesser degree, in the highly tensioned 
and nervous American blood. Its solution is to make the dis- 
gruntled member a Committee man ; give him something to do 
and see that he becomes responsible for the doing, working his 
way into the family management through favors earned and 
not through demand, or by any act of begging. Even the 
youngest should be listened to with attention and respect. 
Criticism should be invited from the little ones, but all fault- 
finding should be reserved for the proper time; presented if 
possible at the appointed family gathering, and in the form of 
writing, that a sympathetic sort of action be taken for better 
mutual understanding, (A family Debating-society might also 
be in order and useful.) 

While we find the Efficiency System applies with astonish- 
ing results to the management of the house, and the accom- 
plishment of housework, it is perhaps more wonderful in its 
psychological result upon the personal development and united 
action of the family. The thorough understanding of its 
meaning, even by one member, pulls the family together, as it 
were, in a way that nothing else can, save a masterly personality 
at the head, and while in no sense does it tend to reduce the 
importance of the power of such a person, it makes it easier 
to arrive at the desired status. Love holds sway of course, love 
of children and parent, but the manner of moulding these into 
service for each, and action for all, becomes an orderly and 
definite form of organization ; whereas now the average family 
is organized only in so far as the natural ties express them- 
selves through happening to be a Smith instead of a Jones, liv- 
ing in the Smith house, having three appointed meals a day, and 
doing as nearly as possible as somebody else suggests, or as 
their fancy dictates. To rally around an Ideal of one's own, to 
use all the Common-sense and Judgment possible in carrying out 
that ideal, to get all the Competent Counsel available, to give 
the Square Deal to everybody and encourage it in return, to 
Discipline through doing and not by attacking, to keep all 
important Records accurately and immediately cared for, to 

178 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FAMILY 

form a co-operative program of procedure as one's Standard 
and Schedule, to Plan and Dispatch with love, wisdom, and 
precision. To Standardize Conditions for the comfort and con- 
venience of each, making every Operation interestii^ as well 
as useful. To note each point of importance to the family as a 
whole and to be ready with generous Reward and appreciation 
for even the dog — if he is concerned — ^cannot fail to make a 
family organization able to meet life's storms and sunshine with 
profit to itself and the world. 



179 



CHAPTER III 

CO-OPERATION IN HOME ACTIVITIES 

"The principles of efficiency are hut the natural law of success, in- 
stinctive in great leaders, but readily adaptable by all" 

As there have always been successful and unsuccessful Indi- 
viduals in the world, so there are families who pull together at 
every point and accomplish wonders ; and families who never 
seem to get anywhere in particular, but who suffer from weak- 
ness of some form of disintegration which sooner or later seems 
to attack them in a vital spot, and after faltering for a time, 
down they go, unfitted to stand the world from all sides and 
profit by its ways. 

While we know it is exceedingly difficult to sum up into any 
definiteness, the reasons and qualities for success and failure 
in life, we are also impressed with the fact that these qualities 
have been studied, analyzed and classified in relation to the 
person from a variety of sides, while the study of the family as 
a successful unit has had scarce a passing thought. We hear 
the adjectives fine, healthy, talented, good-for-nothing, degen- 
erate, etc., but seldom do we note any discussion or serious inter- 
est as to what has truly made these family groups so distinctive. 
It is dismissed with the notion of heredity, or fortunate circum- 
stances, a trait in the blood, good luck, or merely with the facts 
of certain things having resulted ; but any digging down into 
the causes to find the reason why ; any corporate study of the 
various members and how they work together as one; the un- 
derlying principles and the method of developing them so that 
other families might do likewise, has not met the writer's knowl- 
edge. We have been satisfied to follow the family through 
history as it exists, with a historic and passing interest, but 
with no particular idea of developing families to order, accord- 
ing to any plan other than the natural selection theory. That 
any family can be led to self-consciousness and self-determina- 

180 



CO-OPERATION IN HOME ACTIVITIES 

tion by adopting a system of development around a central idea, 
has not sufficiently entered the possibilities of our educational 
conception. Love and devotion on the part of the mother, the 
ambition and self-denial of the father, and educational oppor- 
tunities for the children, about sum up the elements considered 
essential for success. Not to minimize the importance of any of 
these, but to add to them a personal background for their best 
usefulness, is the purpose of this chapter. For many a family 
tragedy has been the result of a motherly devotion, at the ex- 
pense of the life value of the mother ; or fatherly self-denial that 
robbed the children of any sense of responsibility, and higher 
training advantages that have been a waste for lack of "com- 
mon-sense" concentration. 

A reorganization, therefore, of such virtues into a more 
modern form of operation that excludes all unnecessary human 
waste, is the central note in the management of the home from 
the personal side, and here again we would introduce the effi- 
ciency principles or management from the conception of a Func- 
tional operative basis, rather than an Authoritative one. By 
the latter we mean the results of command and influence, through 
the grading of authority from Captain to Corporal. The or- 
ders are given, and either faith in, or fear of the General, and 
the long habit of discipline make them effective ; whether the 
Company understands, or not, is not of first importance. Each 
is responsible to something, or somebody, but not to the whole 
Cause, as an organ of the body must be. 

The functional mode of management, on the other hand, 
would emphasize the need of understanding first ; a spontaneous 
co-operation second; and personal responsibility to the chosen 
ideal as third. All three essential to the right kind of action 
and development, when instead of authority being the cause of 
the effect, it is rather the intelligent functioning of each part 
stimulated by the circulation of educated common-sense, and 
moving freely and harmoniously in relation to all the other 
parts. Harmonious control rather than managerial control. 

While the making of a home, and the work of the house, 
demand the united effort and attention of all the family all the 
time, certain tasks are particularly adapted to co-operative 

181 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

effort. Take for example, the making of a bed. It is wiser 
for two people to make the beds. The movements are simpler, 
more readily directed, and less time is taken in walking from 
one side to the other. A thorough study should first be made 
of the kind and number of motions required in making a stand- 
ard bed. That is, a bed that has been properly aired, dusted, 
turned, spread, and folded in, or tucked under. Even the orna- 
mental coverings should be chosen with a view to the amount 
of time and care needed in the placing and displacing. When 
this has been reduced to a speed and motion schedule, the aver- 
age bed will be found to take about sixty motions and sixteen 
steps in four minutes, but very much less in proportion, when 
performed by two persons instead of one. Then again the 
element of companionship and competition enter in, the interest 
in the work of each other, and the pleasure of moving along to- 
gether. This is noticeably true in such tasks as the shelling of 
peas and hulling of strawberries, the husking of corn, and the 
washing of dishes. The constant experimenting as to better 
methods and more advanced standards, is an added source of 
delight, and the learning to work together in the same school 
of domestic advancement. 

So throughout the house, when the plan in maintaining the 
standard of the home is understood by all, the central motive 
appreciated, and the separate tasks naturally, or voluntarily 
assumed, with the responsibility proportionately divided, each 
part moves along with the consciousness of its being indispen- 
sable to the whole, and of its own importance and merit in each 
undertaking, ready to rush to the aid of the other parts in case 
of need, from pure interest in the outcome, and concern as to 
the details. Thus there enters a kind of discipline that is pro- 
ductive of courage, a concentration on the desired result, and 
a perseverance in order to hold up one's end and therefore 
everybody else, that makes self-determination and control. 
Mind enters into Matter and blazes the way. Matter becomes 
illuminated by mind and develops in ready service. 

It is not to be supposed that all is play and easy of accom- 
plishment. One gets very tired, confused and discouraged at 
times, and even finds it laborious to keep up his or her end, 

182 



CO-OPERATION IN HOME ACTIVITIES 

but such feelings are not dead and without hope. One does 
not fee] the victim of anybody else, but rather the pleasure and 
power of individuality that takes up the work again with a 
new courage and a new perspective, having had merely a lapse 
of disinterestedness, as one often has in the upkeep of one's own 
person, clothes, or character, when perhaps a higher form of 
energy is accumulating, and the fresh start makes up for the 
break. 

The morning housework is tedious and monotonous, looked at 
in one sense, but no more so than for some people to get up 
before breakfast, bathe, and exercise and take themselves to the 
table in an amiable mood. The routine of life anywhere and 
under any circumstances is questionable pleasure. Taking the 
routine sense out of it, is the art of an intelligent soul; and 
this we say is possible even in the sordid work of dusting, air- 
ing, and dishwashing. It is when the work gets all out of pro- 
portion as to time, and accumulates, that the trouble comes. 
One should arrange to keep ahead, yet one task should not be 
continued for more than two hours without a change or recre- 
ation, and all so-called routine work should be spaced as to re- 
lated value. For instance, the writer rises at quarter before 
seven, performs a rapid fifteen-minutes to half-hour toilet, 
reaches the breakfast room at quarter after seven, has a simple 
breakfast ready in ten minutes, after the serving of which any 
one of the household may readily catch the eight-o'clock train. 
The table is cleared, the dishes washed, and the luncheon and 
dinner planned or started by nine, leaving an hour for tidying 
up and arranging the upstairs rooms, and two hours each morn- 
ing for a special task, or occupation, before luncheon need be 
considered. Such a noon meal should not in reason consume 
more than an hour on an average, including preparation and 
the clearing away. An hour for dinner preparation leaves time 
for another two-hour task, and two hours for one's self before 
it is necessary to serve the evening meal, which at this time 
should not consume altogether more than two hours, allowing 
a free evening for the thing of one's choice. While this may 
be a standard program from which one deviates at will, the idea 
is to suggest proportion in time-study. As a rule we find 

183 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

within the prosperous home much too great an amount of time 
set aside for eating and the preparation of food. While this 
is an important part of family life, it becomes a dangerous ele- 
ment when allowed to move out of proportion to other things. 

Most of us would be far better off if a larger proportion of 
this time were devoted to the proper preparation of food in the 
mouth. It is certainly out of line to spend two hours making 
a cherry pie that is to be gulped down in two minutes. Eating 
under the right circumstances is a delightful occupation for 
most people. Why then make it a speed trick for a passing 
moment? People have forever enjoyed gathering around a 
table of goodies, and perhaps there is no better illustration of 
family co-operation than that encouraged through the giving 
of a Social Party that brings those of all ages together for 
a pleasant festive time. We all know how successful clubs and 
other organizations have been in planning and carrying out 
feasts and entertainments of various sorts. In the first place 
everybody is interested and then the plan is made with every- 
body responsible, therefore everybody is willing to help if need 
be. With a clear vision of the event in the minds of all, and a 
good manager at the head, co-operation in the details becomes 
the natural and easy method of realization. But where one 
person takes the whole responsibility, everything is apt to be 
neglected and left for this overburdened one to push through 
as best he can. Just so with the Family co-operative Entertain- 
ment or Party. If each is encouraged to find an interest in 
the occasion and given a share in the responsibility, not with 
a watcher to see that each part is done, but with the assurance 
and confidence among all that it will be, because the self-respect 
of each is at stake ; really creditable entertaining may be done 
with slight cost and little waste, material or human — the latter 
being more important — and every such effort must make a 
stronger, happier and better organized family unit. Such recre- 
ation is valuable, but such co-operation and co-ordination is in- 
valuable in the development of a higher and more productive 
self-consciousness that results in the unqualified success of the 
family who practices such a method. 



184 



CHAPTER IV 

THE HOME AND THE MONEY PROBLEM 

"Give us wealth." — You ask too much. 
"Few have wealth, but all must have a home" 

"O, if I only had money enough, there would be no trouble 
with the home. It is because I have to count every cent, that 
things are not as they should be." How often one hears re- 
marks of this sort and how blissfully ignorant is the one ex- 
pressing herself thus, of the lack of personal force such a 
speech suggests. Surely anyone can appropriate whatever is 
available, if one but have the price. The price of, "should be," 
is, however, very seldom money. It is because we have so imag- 
ined it, that our social order has unhappily anchored itself in 
the deep water of "Omnipotent Means" as the one necessity, and 
men are driven to money-making for home demands as a life 
race. 

Capital of course is an essential factor, just as labor is an 
essential factor, but neither of these can accomplish anything 
worth the having where capability is absent. Whereas, money 
without ability and without labor is as tinsel and foolishness. 
Labor without ability and money is serfdom and drudgery. But 
capability without either money or available labor, straightway 
produces both, calls into being, as it were — out of the abyss — 
all that is essential for accomplishment, making men by the way, 
instead of business machines and money slaves. 

One can overdo the habit of money-making and money- want- 
ing until there is little left but the mere shell of what might 
have been a real human character. One can overdo the habit 
of work until a bended and misshapen body tells the tale of a 
poor order of intelligence, but one cannot overdo practice in 
capability. It gathers as it goes, becoming more and more 
virile, more and more productive, and more and more pleased 
with existence. Therefore the aim should be ability, with money 

185 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

and labor following as essential sides of the triangle, but not 
the apex. Neither is money-giving the highest form of gener- 
osity, whether one has little or much. It is what most people 
think they want and 'tis often the very easiest thing to offer, 
but how much better is a boost or a lift by the way, or a help- 
ing to the next step of acquirement. Money is but a shift, and 
we all scorn shifts. As Emerson says : "You are to bring with 
you that spirit which is understanding, health, and self-help." 
To offer money in lieu of these, is a scorn ; the shadow of good. 

Money for the solution of the household is just as foolish- 
minded a desire as money for the creation of happiness. It is 
always something else that brings relief, although it may appear 
to be the bank-account at first thought. 

To get a dinner when there Is "nothing in the house," to make 
a hat, or gown, out of the merest scraps, is a feat that calls 
forth all sorts of virtues along with thrift, and makes a con- 
queror in the doing. 

The efficient person works with himself and not with the 
material only. Our whole thought of money and its object, 
needs to be reversed and readjusted. The great depend on 
themselves and their capacity, and not on their cash, even 
though the latter is often a tremendous help. 

A bank-account for domestic peace is again not the answer, 
even though it be hard to turn away from apparent appearance. 
The trouble is not with the lack of funds. Public opinion and 
individual disability are the actual roots of the disappointing 
and disintegrating home. The first, in that it dictates without 
reason what shall and what shall not be appropriate and in 
good form. The last because we have not yet realized the 
importance of the creative personal note, nor have we had the 
proper practical education to understand it. 

The Servant Problem, for instance, is now in the control 
of the highest bidder. Not necessarily those who give the most 
wages, but those who offer maximum privilege, are holding the 
condition in abeyance. But that is no solution. It Is merely 
side-stepping the real issue, and Is vicious in effect. Mlsmoti- 
vating the central point and leaving the real difficulty untouched. 

So also with the leisure lover, who in thinking money the one 

186 



THE HOME AND THE MONEY PROBLEM 

and only need, is avoiding the best chance of arriving at any 
desired goal himself, or herself, by neglecting the simple work 
at hand that would, through developing personal ability, trans- 
form the whole existence, and make the self-earned leisure some- 
thing from which to create a form eternal. 

After all time is the only thing for which human beings must 
account ; time and its use. Shall the days make men and women ? 
Or shall they make shams and shadows? The answer is in 
the value of the hour, and the personal use of one's surround- 
ings. Money, as one of the tools, is a valuable asset, but money 
as a solution is a misnomer. Who can say what the standard 
of home-keep should be,'' It varies so enormously as to be ab- 
solutely an individual note, and yet rich and poor alike, the 
pampered and the destitute, are looking for more of this where- 
withal to live. There are two sentiments that so far as the 
writer is concerned, are hard to meet, with any degree of suc- 
cess. One that expressed by the would-be — though often dan- 
gerously devoted mother who says: "My home and my chil- 
dren of course come first, always" — but who really sacrifices 
both woefully by sacrificing herself. The other who insists that 
all is hopeless without at least money enough to keep things 
running. The mother who neglects her home and children to 
the extent of letting the dust rest, and throwing these younger 
people as soon as possible on their own resources, in order 
that she may go forth and enrich herself and therefore her 
home conditions, is wiser than the usual short sight allows. 
She is not only sowing good seed in the present, but is pre- 
paring to reap abundantly in the future. An efficient grip on 
life at every turn, a grip that must make for knowledge and 
skill by virtue of its positive attack, is we believe worth infinitely 
more in keeping things running, than many dollars can ever be 
without this acquired habit. The more one has, the more one 
needs. Applied to money and the destructive elements, this 
is something to consider, but applied to knowledge and the con- 
structive virtues, this law becomes an automatic self-help. These 
higher virtues and perceptions find their materials everywhere, 
while the less-wise cry out for particular things and unusual 
commodities. 

187 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

No, it is not the money standard we should spend our best 
effort in establishing. The problem is the dignity, beauty, and 
cultural value of labor and the personal use of the leisure hour. 
This in turn cannot fail to bring its reward in dollars, but they 
will be dollars that create, not dollars that stultify. A reason- 
able amount of work for everybody. Common every-day work 
can be made to develop the mind, the hand, and the man just 
as surely as has ever the pen, the brush, or the class room. 
And there can be no opportunity, no Fair Deal even, for all, 
until labor instead of money, is distributed more evenly through- 
out the home. A man is entitled to all the money he can make 
honestly, but no man should be allowed to put the pressure bit 
upon another's labor, making a slave of the worker, and an idle 
drone of himself. We must of course recognize the labor of the 
head, as well as that of the hands and the entire body, but the 
ideal balance is that including the whole person, and demand- 
ing the entire ability, not for all the time, but for a moderate 
period of each day, with rest and recreation as essentials. Work 
beginning in and for the home, and extending out and through 
society, making of each boy and girl, and man and woman, a 
completely efficient being who can speak and act in the lan- 
guage of a higher expression of personal effort and not in the 
voice or spirit of the money worshipper. 

"What we are is God's gift to us : what we make of ourselves 
is our gift to God." 



188 



CHAPTER V 

THE CULTURAL VALUE OP HOUSEWOEK 

"Let US understand then that a house should hear witness in all its 
economy that human culture is the end to which it is built and 
garnished" 

"It isn't what you do, but the way you do it, that makes for good 

or ill" 

As one looks upon a well-conceived picture, where the object 
of interest in the foreground suggests a perspective leading to 
an illuminated background, subtly but unmistakably related to 
nothing less than the whole universe; so one may form a vision 
of the kind of home where culture finds an entrance and thus 
transforms every thought and activity to an atmosphere of 
conscious relationship to all that is finest in life. 

Every great thought and feeling In the world has played its 
part in the home. Talent and genius have come forth from it 
and returned unto it again, as the electric current returns to 
its source. History and Government have been because of the 
home, and the very motive for all existence has forever centered 
there, for we find in the two natural instincts that divert from 
the great consciousness, the one of world-conquering, the other 
home-making, that the object of the first is but to deposit the 
results at the shrine of the second. Hence the home and its life 
is supreme. 

Is it reasonable, therefore, to concede that the necessary 
activities to maintain that home have no cultural value ? Either 
we are misled and confused In our Idea of culture, or the home 
is more appallingly poor than it should be, with its Inheritance 
of precious gifts and Its own vast possibilities for expression. 

Perhaps It Is somewhat of each, that has persuaded the mind 
into the belief that because housework has been and Is a form 
of drudgery, that It shall perforce so remain. Such an Im- 
pression must be the result of having neither time nor Incllna- 

189 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

tion to reach out and up and allow the light of the world to 
pour itself in and shed its radiance through every nook and 
comer. Any isolated, detached and common-place attitude to- 
ward housework is not so much because of the character of the 
work involved as because of the lack of vision of the worker 
and a misuse or non-use of that greatest of cultural gifts, hu- 
man imagination. If the spirit of beauty and romance had been 
encouraged to follow the cook and the house-maid, as it has 
traced the steps of the shepherd, for instance, and the milk- 
maid, perhaps house-cleaning and washing might not have 
wandered so far afield from the arts. Certain it is that it be- 
hooves all women of the day to do their utmost toward raising 
these things from the drudgery standard, by cutting away the 
barriers of a shut-in and limited point of view, and relating the 
every act required in the process of housework to the highest of 
human activities. It makes little difference what one does, but 
all the difference that is thinkable, how and under what motive 
one works. The thoughtful and efficient worker puts not only 
his mind, but his whole being into the task at hand, conquers it 
in a masterly way and relates it to everything else he knows at 
every conceivable point, thus is he not satisfied until what he 
does is beautifully done. If Ibsen has contributed one element 
of more value than another, it is to the writer's mind, that 
absorbing thought of everything, — even the most morbid un- 
dertakings, — being beautifully done. Perfect in whole-spirited- 
ness, nothing left out that belongs to it. So that whether one 
is at the wash-tub, or stringing beans, all the science and art 
of each, — the use of the fingers and the movements of the entire 
body, — should enter each occupation and give back in inspira- 
tion and culture more than it takes in strength and tempera- 
ment. It is a sad waste of human life that allows the affairs of 
the day to take from it more than they can give back in profit. 
A kind of drudgery that is immoral, unbusinesslike and un- 
healthy. 

Some day when a new prophet appears, we are going to 
realize that beauty reigns supreme in this world and sooner or 
later all else must succumb. Why the delight in art except that 
it be the messenger of this truth? There is an art element in 

190 



THE CULTURAL VALUE OF HOUSEWORK 

every constructive act, that can be found for the looking to 
bring rich treasure in its wake. When we stop the breaking 
and tearing-down habit, perchance this kind of building-up im- 
pulse will take its place, and it will become disgraceful for 
thought, action, or word to destroy one's body or mind. Let us 
look to it, then, that the essentials in housework are beauti- 
fully done, skillfully, thoughtfully, neatly and exquisitely, that 
the doing of housework may produce a new kind of history, asso- 
ciated with all the homes of the past, but with a transition that 
puts a new meaning on the present, and the promise of a hap- 
pier story for the future. 

Psychologically the home has never been awake, but stands 
ready now in modem form to bow to the dawn, clothe itself in 
purple and gold, and put new life into all who live and care to 
live aright, by introducing an educational element into all the 
work of the day, such as we have never known before. Let us 
welcome this Prince of Science, and hail his approach in each 
task. If literature is, as Carlyle says, "the thought of think- 
ing souls," why should there not be a literary side to these 
every-day occupations that have come down to us through the 
history of the race? Certain it is that language and letters 
and reading, all enter into the thought of the home and 
express the heart of the inmates. Conversation leads but to 
truth in parts. Meditation and thoughtful study unite these 
parts into a whole and when expressed in writing, 'tis called 
literature. 

But perhaps the most broadening sense of personal cultural- 
value in housework comes from the social feeling that every- 
thing one does is related to everybody else. One becomes not 
only responsible for standards of operation, but ethically for 
the results produced upon other people by such standards. 
Example is, we know, the greatest of teachers, and all acts and 
motives are both contagious and infectious. Therefore the 
sociological element enters largely here and declares that one 
shall not only be one's brother's keeper, but shall see to it that 
he is well kept and encouraged to live at his best. 

But why picture any more in the background? The home 
nestles before us in its native spot, and the atmosphere of cul- 

191 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

ture is within and about it. Let us open the window and take 
it to ourselves with the morning sun. 

Although difficult to define, is not this cultural atmosphere 
the effect of relating one's self to the moving spirit in things? 
The connection with and the appreciation of a Creative force? 
It is the antithesis of the isolated, traditional and common-place 
mode of procedure. It is realizing the life-value and worth in 
every move and mood; the advancement of thought and feeling 
in the line of daily pursuits, and the accumulation of a sense of 
quality by the way. 

There is, we believe, in every part of housework a larger and 
deeper meaning, and a relation to a more distant condition and 
background than is generally allowed. What, therefore, must 
be the appalling waste through not appreciating this fact ? The 
lives and bodies of our men and women show a sacrifice to 
this end. Where we should have the health of the Norseman 
and the beauty in form of the Greek, we have but weak nerve 
and a bended head. A wider perspective must lead to these 
heights, which will be found very real and substantial, neither 
misty nor dizzy, but ready to shower the light of broad knowl- 
edge into the smallest detail of one's every-day labors. 

We have thought of our play as picturesque, but the 
thought of this element in work and in housework has been but 
to regret that it could not be, but play and work must be united 
and hie themselves off together, becoming one in spirit and in 
truth, all that is needed is but the desire. Aspiration makes 
way for the coming of inspiration every time, and woman is 
the great aspirer. She is the source and sustainer of life, and 
yet she must know more of herself, and of natural science for 
every-day application, before she will have become the kind of 
source and sustainer most needed. This but awaits her desire 
and is within her intuitive power to grasp as a truly cultural 
effect because of her contact with her Maker and her fellows 
through every hour of the day — coupled with a sense of her 
own high mission. 



192 



CHAPTER VI 

TRAINING FOR DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

"The conservation of all that 'pertains to the best interests of home 
and home life, should be our first concern" 

The simple undisputed meaning of the word domestic — per- 
taining to the home, or family — will give us no cause for dis- 
cussion other than perhaps its inclusive sense. It may but 
relate to the Kitchen and the cat, or in turn it may include all 
that pertains to one's State and Country. To limit it to our 
particular purpose, however, we would have it suggest the 
home and all that affects the family therein. 

To qualify engineering and its purpose as a profession, asso- 
ciated with domestic activities, is the purpose of this Chapter. 
While domestic science has had considerable Academic atten- 
tion, the subject of domestic engineering has not yet seriously 
entered University thought and practice. 

In the most restricted sense, the word conveys merely the 
idea of designing, constructing, and the running of an engine, 
but as the profession was practiced under this title long before 
an engine even in its crudest form, was invented, we must search 
for a deeper and more definite explanation than is suggested by 
such a definition. Although the planning, constructing and 
administrating of the home as a social engine, or motive power, 
in the community, will ever be the highest purpose of its exist- 
ence, a more modern translation of the word "engineering" 
would be, the skillful guidance of an enterprise to a desired 
result through knowledge of its parts. This, coupled with the 
generally accepted meaning — "To direct the great sources of 
power in nature to the use and convenience of man," gives a 
legitimate use for the term in connection with the home and the 
sources of power there involved. The direction of this power 
toward desired results, and the knowledge of its best relation to 
material, to the principles of operation and to the laws of 

193 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

nature, is an education needed for the woman just as much — 
if not more — than for the man. 

By Domestic Engineering then is meant the profession of 
designing, producing, and guiding the home and the family to 
approximate perfection, that they may be of most use in the 
world's operations. It includes all that is allowed under Do- 
mestic Science and Home Economics, and would add thereto 
the principles of general engineering, efficiency and business- 
While we are apt to associate with the engineer a knowledge 
of higher mathematics, the actual practice in this subject is not 
as essential as the mental result of the habit of mathematical 
thought, with, of course, the necessary aptitude for such a 
habit. Accuracy and precision, quick perception and quick 
action, good judgment, and the ingenuity to meet and over- 
come obstacles, should be the mathematical sense included. 

Mechanics should also enter very largely into such training. 
The principles involved in the construction and running of ma- 
chinery, with the theory of and practice in every sort of house- 
hold machine in vogue and their relative values. A study in 
business principles, and the elements of economics and their 
application at every point, that maximum results may be ar- 
rived at with least waste in time, labor and money. The in- 
ventive ability should be encouraged that improvement be made 
progressive. 

Knowledge of, and acquaintance with materials of every sort 
that enter the home, and their use, with comparative worth, 
would be one of the endless studies in this profession. 

All the scientific information possible, included under the 
general head of physics, of the science of energy, together with 
chemistry, sanitation, hygiene, culinics, dietetics, etc. In other 
words, a familiarity with the laws of nature as they touch and 
have to do with the home and its life. But it is about this last 
word that the keynote of training should center; life, inter- 
preted in psychology, anatomy, biology, physiology, etc. The 
study of the human being and its best development, is the comer- 
stone from which such a profession should grow, expand and 
develop. The form of training required should start with the 
human body, unfolding as it were, to its environment. It should 

194. 



TRAINING FOR DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

include a working knowledge of each physical organ and the 
systems of circulation. It should be familiar with the nerve 
centers and their importance. It should include a course in 
mental hygiene and in manual dexterity. It should determine 
the amount and kind of exercise required in order to maintain 
health, and above all it should be definitely certain as to the 
amount and kind of food essential for proper nutrition. 

The profession of home-making interpenetrates, as it were, 
all other professions. The successful mother must be a cook, 
a nurse, a seamstress, a house-worker, a doctor, a minister, a 
teacher, a writer, a hostess, an economist, a scientist, an artist, 
a philosopher, an engineer, a business manager, a public and 
social worker, and oftentimes a wage earner and an agricultural- 
ist. Such a list is awe-inspiring and yet everybody knows the 
woman of the house is expected to meet this great field, and 
frequently does, with an ability that is astounding when one 
considers the inappropriateness and inadequacy of her training. 
The course of study laid out for the average girl is a series of 
periods adapted to the boy mind, for the reason that instead of 
starting with the study of herself and life which is her in- 
stinctive care, she is made to detach herself from her center of 
interest, and work at separated and partial problems that only 
the faculty of reason can put together for proper use, and then 
largely for mechanical purposes ; a faculty in which she does 
not excel, nor was it ever intended that she should. It is not 
the highest gift to humanity nor should it be so mistaken. Her 
intuitive gift that leads her to know from putting herself in the 
heart of the subject, her very contact with life itself, should be 
better understood, reverenced, and fostered from the beginning 
of her training, and a class of studies adapted to her particular 
function in the world, correlating with, but unlike those 
adapted to the development of the boy. Even her school course 
in domestic science originated and was formed upon the depart- 
ment of manual training designed for the other sex. The 
creation, nutrition, and the preservation of life, is her por- 
tion, life in its finest form, and her education should fit accord- 
ingly. 

She has therefore through this lack of training had an un- 

195 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

warranted struggle to maintain her real place in the world of 
progress. Unprepared for responsibility and unacquainted with 
even herself and her true function, she has been well-nigh led 
astray in her maternal instinct, — if it were possible to so lead 
her. 

Thus we look to the interest in Domestic Engineering to re- 
model and readjust the thought of the day as to the sort of 
knowledge and training that should be given young women. 
Not that it should differ in kind from the present course, but in 
point of view, and in relation to life and its operations. The 
same habits of study and breadth of view should be encouraged. 
The same common-sense and courage that will meet each prob- 
lem, old and new, and be ready for any emergency. The same 
higher cultivation that makes for wider appreciation, but it 
should all begin with herself, and focus in the home and the 
family. Then will the mother be able to so co-ordinate and 
assemble her knowledge through the understanding of the life- 
value in all things, as to meet with strength and abundant 
resource the many-sided demands upon her, and with an 
insight all her own, a natural grasp, intuitively developed, be 
led to see the solution as well as the real possibilities of every 
situation. 

The writer has so often been asked to outline a course of study 
for a Domestic Engineer that perhaps the following table — 
although possibly inadequate — may suggest a form of schedule 
to be evolved: 

1st Year — Self-knowledge — contained perhaps In such sub- 
jects as Biology, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, Physical 
Culture, Mental Hygiene, Sex and Mother Study, Nursing, 
Child Study, and Life Processes including Fatigue. 

2d Year — Knowledge of Surroundings as suggested In 
Science and Physics, Chemistry, Sanitation, Bacteriology, Study 
of the House, Principles and Practice of Plumbing, Heating, 
etc.. Mechanics, Economics, Cullnlcs, Dietetics, etc. 

3d Year — Practice In Use of Environment — as made possible 
In Vocational and Apprentice Housework, the Arts and 
Crafts, Management and Execution, Study of Textiles and 

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TRAINING FOR DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Values, Principles of Invention, Business and Responsibility 
Tactics. 

4th Year — Creation of Personality the result of applying the 
above — Dramatic Art, Classic Dance, Art Composition, 
Pageantry, the Study of Motion, Family Psychology and the 
Engineering of Home Making. 



197 



CHAPTER VII 



THE MEANING OF ROOMS 



"Infinite riches e'en in a little room" 

Did you, my good reader, ever look at a house with the im- 
pression that it was a person? Did it ever make faces at you, 
frown, scowl, or be astonished at your gaze? Look upon you 
with a threatening, or aggressive expression, perhaps even in 
vulgar mood, or beckon you pleasantly to come within its cosy 
shelter and enjoy its own restful and delightful air? Even 
would it smile were its form not so fixed. The whole attitude 
friendly and fine, dignified and charming, due in part to the 
skill of the architect, and in a measure to the requirements of 
the owner. And again it appears as the exterior clothing of 
the life of that home, conveying the disposition of the family 
through its composition, texture, color, form and quality. 

So it is with the inner expression, dependent of course upon 
line and proportion, but showing the status of individuality and 
native culture through its furnishings and finish, and through 
the personnel of each room. 

Did it ever occur to you that these rooms are very much 
more than divisions of space for pleasure or convenience sake? 
No matter how simple, or how luxurious the spacings may be 
appointed, the meaning and object is the same in all houses. 
To arrive at this, to develop it intelligently, and to encourage 
the suitable use of each room, is a delightful and ever-present 
subject of interest to any woman who has a spark of poetry or 
dramatic sense in her make-up. 

And let us not think the meaning is any less real, or prac- 
tical because of weaving about it this feeling of romance, for 
poetry and drama that is not founded in truth and actual prac- 
tice and expressed with conviction, is but artificial twaddle, un- 
worthy its name. 

The setting of the room in all its parts should introduce and 

198 



THE MEANING OF ROOMS 

suggest the character, and preface the destiny in family action, 
and the atmosphere of the whole carry one into the more subtle 
and mystic possibilities of each domestic hearth. 

But let us proceed to this meaning by taking a glance back 
at the historical beginning of rooms. The earliest records show 
the interior of the home as one room, or cell, for the purpose of 
shelter and rest from outer conflict ; the evolution of this cell, 
or the adding of other cells, or chambers, being but a develop- 
ment of civilization and corresponding to the personal progress 
of man, until now we find the many-roomed home illustrative of 
life as it has grown in complexity. 

Even the many-roomed home of the past has changed greatly 
in quality and been adapted to present-day requirements. In- 
stead of the stiff and stern expression of authority, the cold 
and distant atmosphere, emphasized with hard coloring and 
morbid touches of self-denial and the fear of the hereafter; we 
have homes of warm and intimate feeling, suggesting ease, free- 
dom, and pleasure, accentuated with little touches here and 
there of delightful memories, personal and charming notes. 
The very texture of the walls and furnishings suggesting a 
mood that is harmoniously carried out in coloring and composi- 
tion. The art of furnishing and the material available, having 
reached a truly high place in what is known as interior decora- 
tion. But in most part it revolves around a tradition, or a 
period, a foreign custom, or a particular school; individuality 
and life-value having made but limited headway even where vast 
sums are at one's disposal. The reason for this being that the 
meaning of rooms has not been sufficiently grasped by the aver- 
age owner and decorator alike. The house is much more human 
and personal than has been generally allowed. 

The four essential sides of the life of a family that must be 
supplied by the closest environment, are the physical, the in- 
tellectual, the social, and the spiritual, and while all of these 
enter into the value of each room, the setting of which In turn 
reacts upon each, still we may say that the kitchen supplies 
the physical man, the dining-room the understanding of his 
needs, the library the mental side, and the development of 
knowledge. The drawing-room the social and entertainment 

199 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

side, to which may be linked any other rooms of recreation, and 
the bedroom the spiritual and psychic side, for in sleep and 
repose is found life's highest treasures. All of the past and all 
the future seem to marry here in creation of the present. A 
veritable reservoir of human possibility, and the greatest gift is 
to know how to envelop one's self in the quality of sleep that 
leads to spiritual advance. The halls and stairs are as the 
circulation, or connection of parts, and the entrance or foyer 
as the will that regulates transition, and develops intuition. 
Mayhap the interpretation appears fanciful and yet gentle 
reader, stop and think. Are not the very partitions in a house, 
in order that the needs of the body be supplied in each part 
excluding the other sides for the time? Fostering a concentra- 
tion on the purpose at hand? Would it not be distracting to 
intelligently feed one's self in a room where books, and music, 
sewing and business were each taking one's attention at the same 
time? As is said in the Good Book: "There is a time to weep 
and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance" and 
each subject should have its place, the relation determined by 
the spacing and the inner perspective. The floors in finish and 
quality givmg a sense of the foundation of the room's value ; the 
ceiling the limitation. Not that one should reach great heights 
in reality, but in sensation. There should be no dull and 
heavy weight, no shutting down upon one's sense of proportion, 
but a clear, transparent tone suggestive of ample height. The 
walls tell the story of the predominating mood of the inmates ; 
the character of the feeling expressed in each quarter, and the 
kind of inspiration needed in all. 

As to the furnishings, they are but the tools for action ; the 
kind, the shape and quality conforming to one's thought. So a 
family may be read, all unconsciously perhaps, by peering 
through the windows at the furnishings therein displayed. Not 
only the rooms, but the whole house should be looked upon as 
expressing life. The inner, or more private part, as the mind 
and feeling. The house itself as the outer form, or body, and 
the family as the soul. Then would furnishing become a simpler 
study, with less danger of the accumulation of things, unused 
and unfitted to the scene and its period. 

200 



THE MEANING OF ROOMS 

As long as fashion dictates what shall and shall not be, in- 
congruities and misfits must result. Things useful for the 
Smiths will not merely for that reason be useful for the Joneses, 
for while the whole human family has a likeness all its own, each 
separate individual, and each little group has a difference all 
its own, and the marvel of creation is that no two have ever 
been found alike. Why, therefore, should we follow a less 
natural tendency in the home that expresses the individual? 
Why make houses all alike, or appoint them for a farce, when 
comedy or serious drama is to be the play? 

The logical way to furnish a home is to see first to the nature 
of the family, and then separate the parts into the principal 
sides, and these sides into their unit of composition. In other 
words, assemble in characteristic form the furnishings and ma- 
terial for each. The drawing-room, for instance, is a room for 
congregation, spaced in such a way as to give opportunity for 
intimate, or friendly conversation, proper audience to music, — 
if there be not a separate music room, — and altogether a place 
to withdraw for social purposes, the character of which is to be 
determined by the likings of the family. Two cosy chairs here, 
pleasantly inviting for a dainty cup of tea and a little talk, a 
larger group there, with perhaps a table and a spacious sofa 
or Davenport. Another grouping of a stiffer form to fit the 
need of just a moment stopping, with lighter chairs or seats that 
lend themselves to ready moving. With this idea in mind, the 
room will never lose its meaning and cannot fail to attract and 
interest just by virtue of its being true to itself. 

The Library, on the other hand, is neither for general congre- 
gation, nor social functions, but a space where books and read- 
ing matter is conspicuous, and where lights, easy chairs and 
comfortable corners invite one to thoughtful things, to discus- 
sion and study, to exchange of opinion, and the enjoyment of 
knowledge. It is therefore logically furnished when the group- 
ings and the fittings carry out a scene for the action of all that 
is intellectual and delightfully instructive. 

The Dining-Room we find more personal and should there- 
fore be more private. While its function is so well known that 
its furnishing logically takes care of itself, as it were, just a 

201 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

suggestion may be appropriate as to its relation to the "under- 
standing" of the physical. The writer once heard a boy say he 
cared not what he ate as long as he was filled up, and while 
this is the extreme of ignorance, yet very few boys, or grown- 
ups realize what eating can mean, or the art that may be de- 
veloped in the operation, and while much attention has been 
given to the manner, or form, in eating, little thought has been 
devoted to the principles of the act itself. The Scientific way to 
eat, and the surroundings that would encourage the under- 
standing of brain feeding, and nerve feeding, and the higher 
psychic nourishment, as well as the feeding of muscle and 
blood, would be genuinely worth the effort. Perhaps the form 
and setting of the furnishings is as logical as may be had, but 
great care should be given to the choice of the chairs, that they 
fit the body as restfully and properly as an upright position 
allows. Some of the straight-backed chairs of our grandparents' 
time were more intelligently adapted here. To eat in a reclin- 
ing or uncomfortable position is not a wise habit. 

Again, little need be said of the logical way to furnish a 
Bed-Room, further than that the bed as the motive of the 
room, cannot be too carefully considered as to quality, comfort, 
simplicity, and form. It is the place upon which one lays all 
one's burdens at night and wakes refreshed for the day. It is 
the custom to mount to it, if not in the old step-ladder way, at 
least up the stairs from one's lesser private life, to the inner 
sacred shrine. Here it is logical to furnish with sentiment, 
with religious devotion, and with personal ease in mind. It is 
the haven of the spirit, and as such it should express a rever- 
ence for all inspiration needed. 

While the Foyer, or Front Hall, is in one sense the most 
public portion of the house, in another it becomes extremely 
exclusive, if properly treated. It is the place for the hesitation, 
transition, and the conclusion of the will. One passes from 
one portion of the house to the other by way of the hall, giving 
it the function of blending together these moods. A friend ar- 
rives, one hesitates a moment, and then selects the room for the 
occasion. A stranger enters, and one decides his reception. 
The Hall is the outer expression of the inner private life, and 

202 



THE MEANING OF ROOMS 

from a furnishing standpoint most fascinating, for the reason 
that dignity, good taste, and ample sympathy should preside, 
while formal furnishings should be their vehicle. It is perhaps 
the most difficult room from a logical furnishing standpoint, but 
when successfully appointed, the scene is here set for the result 
of the best of one's individuality. 



203 



CHAPTER Vin 

DOMESTIC INDEPENDENCE AND HOSPITALITY 

"You must therefore love me myself and not my circumstances if 
we are to be friends" 

"Are there no flowers on earth, in heaven no stars, 
That we must place in such low things our trust?" 

Perhaps no one domestic virtue has gone so far afield of its 
real meaning, and been subjected to more kinds of artificialities 
and misinterpretations than that of hospitality. 

To take in the stranger, or wayfarer, to give refreshment to 
the traveller, and "treat with kindness but without regard," was 
the original intent, when the distances were great, public 
taverns few, and the only means of getting from place to place 
was by the exercise of one's personal ingenuity. "Hospitate" 
was both hospital and hospitality. The taking in of the sick, 
the halt, and the blind became too great a burden for private 
means, and so public institutions were established with the idea 
of receiving the more needy guests of a town, until now under 
the name "Hospital" every sort of sickness and helplessness is 
cared for, from that requiring but temporary rest for recupera- 
tion, to that of permanently housing the poor and the insane. 
Thus has the needy traveller been publicly provided for by 
the combined efforts and support of the community, leaving 
the stranger to care for himself in the independent way afforded 
by hotels, inns, and other public stopping places, that have be- 
come a part of every town and hamlet in its hospitality. 

In a general way there is left but the possible wayfarer of 
the moment, who perchance may need for his personal welfare 
but a bit of information, or a kindly word in passing. The 
hotel, the hospital, and other public institutions having taken 
the place of the home in the provision for the guest of the first 
meaning, leaving under the head of hospitality the bidden guest 

204 



DOMESTIC INDEPENDENCE AND HOSPITALITY 

of one's own choice, the friend of the family, or of a member 
thereof. While friends are formed and friendship developed 
through various avenues of interest, circumstances, contact, and 
natural happenings, to be virtuous and worthy the name, all 
should be rooted deep in human sympathy and service, and no 
other should be welcome to one's inner life. The hospitality 
that prides itself upon the flow of wine and the number of 
guests supplied, the constant going and coming, and the "open 
house" program, either gives unduly of itself and makes for 
friendly poverty, or provides the mere shell of the real thing 
that cannot but end in destruction, and is as vulgar in appear- 
ance as any other artificial imitation of reality. 

The home as the private and personal life of the family 
should be hospitable only to those who through contact with 
this inner self are made to create a mutual joy and understand- 
ing. The will of the host should be to give of himself, and the 
will of the guest to do likewise. The degenerating idea so com- 
mon to present times of expecting every sort of provision for 
one's personal ease and enjoyment, every luxury, and every 
attention, not of the heart but of the bank-book, makes the 
coming of the modern guest too often a thing of financial, 
rather than friendly and intimate concern, for while the visitor 
if bidden in good faith, has every reason to expect the attention 
of a right good welcome, and pleasure in the visit, it is alto- 
gether unreal and therefore unright, that it should depend 
upon the number of courses at the table, or the number of auto- 
mobiles at the door. Such a guest is a troublesome concern to 
the host, and a sham unto himself, reaching out to the hand 
only, of him who entertains, with too faint thought as to the 
quality of the heart. This false sentiment that seems to be 
hovering over the custom of the present guest chamber is, how- 
ever, not so serious, even when it seems to exist, for the reason 
that it is not so much a fact as an appearance. What the 
guest really wants is that sense of freedom and personal ease 
that comes from the unrestricted use of another's environment 
as one would use one's own, a visit, a change of scene, and the 
freedom that is acquired in a hotel, coupled with the delight of 
having it cheerfully provided and offered by a particular host 

205 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

of one's choice. If therefore there might be a mutual under- 
standing that this condition would be assured, all artificial ef- 
fort for its creation would give way to a study of actual and 
charming relationship that would make the program of enter- 
tainment turn upon a personal and friendly note, rather than a 
material and selfish one. No matter how elaborate the sur- 
roundings, or how constant the attendance upon one's wishes, 
for permanent happiness there is no enjoyment like the gift of 
independence, and unless the guest can be made to feel this, 
together with the charm of the atmosphere of another's home, 
the variety of different customs, as they touch upon the more 
inner sacred chamber of an individuality than may be had in 
other social intercourse, the host or hostess will have but 
poorly succeeded in the entertainment of the guest. 

Since the beginning of time independence has been the cry of 
the personal soul. Bodily freedom first, from devouring beasts 
and the vengeance of the Great Spirit ; National and Religious 
independence ; political, social, industrial, economic ; freedom of 
speech ; free education ; the independence of woman ; and the 
last and perhaps the most basic and important that is now to 
be declared is domestic independence, the thought that the home 
requires of one only what one chooses to give, and can readily 
give for its support. It must first, however, be made so much 
a part and delight of each life that devotion to the home 
purpose, will be a perpetual pleasure, not the permanent and 
pressing duty, so often found to exist, holding the mind as it 
were in a vice; oppressed by reason of the ever-broadening 
number of demands, and that helpless feeling of being driven 
beyond one's strength and resources. Suppose five servants do 
seem to be required, or one even, for the proper maintenance of 
an establishment, if at any time they may not be had, let us not 
sacrifice our lives to such a catastrophe, but rather cut the 
garment to fit the cloth, and run the house in such a manner 
as to support it with what may be had. The help of good 
labor is most comforting, but If it is not available, let us still 
live, and not become so weak as to give up our domestic ties 
and the personal value of home, helplessly dependent upon the 
force of circumstances. To master one's situation by knowing 

206 



DOMESTIC INDEPENDENCE AND HOSPITALITY 

one's environment, to practice the essential operations, and to 
be sure of the foundation of things, gives a sense of power and 
discrimination that cannot but make one equal to any emergency 
that may arrive. This spirit of independence becomes a power- 
ful state in maintaining the house, that is not only contagious 
in the family, but affects everyone who may come in contact 
with its influence. Perhaps no one element will induce greater 
progress in the home and its social relationship than this feel- 
ing of being equal to the situation. It is the culmination of 
the efficiency system in a nut-shell; capability, productivity, 
and initiative, being the branches from which it naturally de- 
velops. 

To be dependent upon the presence, the efforts, the humor, or 
even the ability of another ; to feel bound by custom, rule, regu- 
lation, or the expectation of a coming guest, is to start the 
beginning of an unnatural barrier that cannot fail to spread 
and become destructive in its influence. Tension and nervous- 
ness result. The guest is sensitive to a confinement of thought 
and feeling and the visit or entertainment is just so much in- 
jured thereby. With the idea of the freedom of the house, 
coupled with a sympathetic relationship, the efficiency of a visit, 
the satisfactory result, would be in proportion to the knowl- 
edge of one's surroundings and the pleasure taken in adaptation 
thereto. 

It is well to adopt a plan whereby the visitors in a home may 
know in the simplest way what customs of the house are usual, 
why it is necessary or not necessary to conform to them ; how 
and where to find any material that may be required at a mo- 
ment's notice, without disturbing the hostess, or even summon- 
ing a maid, and the program or general plan of action to be 
carried out for each particular visit. In this way intelligence 
is developed as to the surroundings, it but remains then to take 
pleasure in the performance in a free give-and-take process. A 
sort of adaptation of the Golden Rule, for no one should accept 
the hospitality of another unless he be willing to do his utmost 
in return, not necessarily by an exchange of goods, or visits, 
but by the giving of one's best effort to the situation. Thus 
the spirit of Service should prevail on both sides, the guest 

207 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

bringing the fruits of good will and good cheer, the host mak- 
ing ready by preparing his offerings and delivering them, not 
necessarily with the help of a servant, but by way of himself, 
unharassed through the effort. 

The work of entertaining generally, to be successful, should 
not fall too heavily upon the host. Each guest, whether for an 
hour or a day, should have reason to feel a sense of responsi- 
bility and a willingness to co-operate in the occasion to the 
very best of his or her ability. Most people enjoy looking after 
themselves, and the independence of going and coming. Why 
not encourage this personal liking by devising ways and means 
not only to make this possible, but to make it most pleasurable ? 

The habitual use of a Bulletin Board in the home, where all 
information needed might be had at a glance, would be most 
useful for the visitor, besides the special directions that should 
be posted in the guest's chamber, and in other portions of the 
house. 

The native joy in producing one's keep, which has its ex- 
pression in being able to take care of, or help one's self, is too 
great to be carelessly ignored. For while it is pleasant at 
times to be waited upon, it is most oppressive when it becomes a 
habit. Thrice pleasanter is it to feel free and able to wait upon 
another. 

And so we would say the model guest is he who tarries in the 
spirit of Service, to give of himself, and to take what is offered 
in a mood of reverence, responsibility, and restful delight, feel- 
ing it a pleasure and an honor to be bidden into the inner life, 
as it were, of one's friend. For if he cannot feel this, he should 
not come. In coming he shows his gratitude, not so much for 
the things with which he may be provided, as for the joy and 
sympathy offered in the gift of friendly contact. As Emerson 
says: 

"I pray you, O excellent wife, not to cumber yourself and me 
to get a rich dinner for this man or this woman who has alighted 
at our gate, nor a bed-chamber made ready at too great cost. 
These things, if they are curious in them, they can get for a 
dollar at any village. But let this stranger, if he will, in your 
looks, in your accent and behavior, read your heart and earnest- 

208 



DOMESTIC INDEPENDENCE AND HOSPITALITY 

ness, your thought and will, which he cannot buy at any price, 
in any village or city ; and which he may well travel fifty miles, 
and dine sparely and sleep hard, in order to behold. Certainly 
let the board be spread and let the bed be dressed for the travel- 
ler; but let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in these things. 
Honor to the house where they are simple to the verge of hard- 
ship, so that then, the intellect is awake, and reads the laws of 
the Universe, the soul worships truth and love; honor and 
courtesy flow into all deeds." 



209 



CHAPTER IX 



AN EFFICIENCY DINNER 



"All the arts wait at my table, every man of quality take sanctuary 
here! I will be patron to twenty liberal sciences" 

It avails little to know what ought to be done, if you do not 
know how it can be done. To give a dinner without a maid, 
a butler, or a cook, one must know how to plan, to execute, 
to enjoy the work, and to appear at the feast as fresh, affable, 
and recuperated as if having come from a walk in the garden, 
or a chat with a friend. 

While this is not difficult for almost any would-be hostess, 
yet it might be suggestive to describe one of the Dinners 
given at the Experiment Station as a sample of such possibil- 
ity, even though it may not in detail appeal to the reader. 

The ideal, or first thought that comes to one in consider- 
ation of the character of such entertaining is, we take it, good 
company. One may enjoy a dinner with interesting compan- 
ions and hardly realize what is being served in the way of 
food. On the other hand, uncongenial, or disagreeable guests 
would make the most perfect dish unpalatable to a sensitive 
member of the party. 

Of course the menu should, and generally does, have care- 
ful attention, and the inclination of the good hostess is to 
bountifully give of the best she has to offer. Second to good 
company, then, it would seem to the writer is smoothness, ease 
and comfort in the service, beauty of setting, order in the 
progress, and individuality in the atmosphere. 

The Dining-Room is the most intimate room in the home, 
of those devoted to social uses, and the gathering of friends 
about one's table is an invitation to enter into personal under- 
standing, as well as close and friendly touch with another. No 
one would accept therefore in good faith unless willing and 
happy to partake in this form of relationship. 

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AN "EFFICIENCY" DINNER 

The conditions in the air, that are most fitted to the psy- 
chological success of a dinner, are such as make for a free, 
happy flow of conversation, good feeling, and original thought. 
Everything of a material form would be subservient to the per- 
sonal, so that in the choice of the menu, and in the serving 
thereof, care should be taken to assure the most efficient and 
tactful management to this end. 

There were two reasons in the mind of those at the Sta- 
tion for attempting this form of entertainment without as- 
sistance. First, to standardize the serving of meals generally 
that may at times, for any reason whatsoever, have to be ar- 
ranged without help in the Dining-Room, and second, because 
to properly establish a right sense of domestic independence, 
one must be able not only to do the necessary things in each 
department of the house, but to do them in a satisfying way 
and in a manner expressive of one's ideals. Not that having 
a dinner party is essential, or the doing without human serv- 
ice a wise choice, even though there is a feeling of joy in the 
elimination of a strange personality in the room and a re- 
lief in the concern for "those who are to eat after," as well 
as in the waste and expense in the case, but if a hostess can 
effectively meet this test, and successfully fulfill the function 
of manager, cook, waitress, and the charming head of the 
table, she has mastered at least in her own mind, many a lesser 
situation, in the solution of this greater one. 

Although independence and originality are both to be care- 
fully considered, just enough conventionality, — or the following 
of the prevailing custom — is a wise manner of proceeding, for 
the reason that it encourages ease and smoothness in the service, 
by virtue of the guests knowing what to expect, and therefore 
not having their attention too absorbed in the material detail, 
therefore the food to be described was chosen with the idea of 
the demands of the usual, formal courses, care being taken to 
supply such things as needed the least trouble and time in prep- 
aration for the service of ten covers. 

The table was prepared and decorated early in the day. A 
large revolving silver salver, serving the purpose of a center- 
piece, as well as a server, and bearing some choice roses, which 

211 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

were also circled about underneath in interesting antique silver 
holders. The china used was Rose Medallion, and the cloth of 
Japanese embroidery. A rose at each place indicated, with the 
name-card, the placing of the guests, and the shaded lights and 
glimmer of the silver side-table, or revolving Dumb-Butler, 
added to the pleasant and festive atmosphere of the room. 

After the arrival of the friends in the Drawing-Room, the 
hostess withdrew for the fewest of moments to place the con- 
tents of the electric "fireless cooker" compartments upon the 
silver dishes heated for the purpose, garnished and placed them 
rapidly upon the dumb-butler, returning to the guests with a 
tray of drinks and dainties that had been prepared and placed 
in the ice-chest ready for serving. As the food, to be served 
hot, had been put into the dishes at maximum heat, the little 
delay in reaching the Dining-Room mattered not, although there 
was an electric plate warmer upon the lowest shelf of the dumb- 
butler to be used as necessary. 

The first course was grape fruit centered with seeded white 
grapes prepared early in the day and cooled. Next, a celery 
soup that had been poured while boiling, into thermos pitchers, 
and was now ready to serve in tiny Japanese bowls upon brass 
standards, just in front of each plate. Each grape-fruit plate 
was placed in turn upon the center-piece with a direct and easy 
motion and revolved to the hostess, who deposited the skins in 
a handsome medallion bowl standing on the lowest shelf of the 
dumb-butler, the silver in a little wooden basket, and the dishes 
at the side, leaving ample room for the plates of each course 
to be handled in the same way. While at first thought it may 
appear a confusing operation, in actual practice it is orderly 
and convenient, one guest following another as attention is 
attracted, and each plate has quite completed its object. It but 
requires a little skill on the part of the hostess, that no noise of 
unnecessary movements be allowed in the management of this 
lowest tray. The little soup bowls may be returned to the origi- 
nal place, or, put in turn upon the silver salver. A roll, a pat 
of butter, a biscuit and a bit of unleavened bread was to be found 
upon each bread and butter plate, and now the meat course was 
the next dish scheduled. The host in the meantime having 

212 



AN "EFFICIENCY" DINNER 

carved a boned turkey in pieces convenient for each to serve him 
or herself from the center. To the right was a dish of baked 
brown rice with mushrooms. Next to this some finely sliced 
string beans and carrots, and still next a pretty form of cran- 
berry, all arranged in the order to make it convenient for one to 
help one's self to meat, for instance, while another might be 
serving herself to a vegetable. The matter of personal serving 
was as each felt disposed. As this course moved from the table 
to the second tray of the dumb-butler, the next course was put 
in its place ; plates of deliciously prepared chiffonade salad with 
cheese, crackers, ripe olives, and almonds, circled in turn to each 
guest. Maple ice-cream was the dessert, frozen in the afternoon 
by "James" the electric motor, and packed in a thermos box 
awaiting in perfect form the hour for use. Large ripe figs pre- 
served in syrup, and some little pound cakes accompanied this 
course, after which the party returned to the Drawing-Room 
for coffee and bonbons, leaving everything in orderly routine 
upon the five trays of the Dumb-Butler, to be quickly rolled to 
the electric dishwasher, incinerator, and food-closet after the 
departure of the guests. 

Not for a moment would the writer suggest that such an 
affair entailed no work, for from the selection of those who would 
form the most congenial company, to the washing of the last 
cup, an intelligent effort was necessary, but with careful plan- 
ning, and particular attention, the time and strength, as well 
as the money required, may easily be reduced to a minimum, and 
the whole performance carried through with one pair of hands, 
and about four hours of actual labor. The boned turkey is prac- 
tically prepared by the butcher. Any skillful meat-man if given 
sufficient notice, will attend to this, allowing the bones to be 
roasted in the same vessel if desired ; any flavoring or seasoning 
one prefers may also be added to taste, and the whole placed in 
the electric oven automatically arranged to do the work on 
scheduled time. 

The vegetables and salad may also be prepared in the early 
afternoon, the cream frozen and the little dainties put in place. 
In fact there is no excuse for the entire dinner not being com- 
pleted at least an hour before the time appointed, so that a rest- 

213 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

ful toilet, and the proper making ready to receive one's friends, 
may gracefully complete the last touch, when one acquires the 
crowning satisfaction at least of feeling she has given of her 
best, in knowledge, attention, skill, labor and thoughtful con- 
sideration, which cannot fail to produce an atmosphere — the 
result of thoroughly appreciating every present condition — 
that should make the guests happy in assembling. 



214> 



CHAPTER X 

CHILDREN AND THE EFFICIENCY SYSTEM 

"/ am a young person, hut not therefore impotent" 

But what of the children under the Efficiency System? 

A question so often asked the writer that it deserves in this 
volume a little space all its own, not so much for the putting 
down of either the facts, or the theories of the subject, as to 
outline the natural principles around which the children develop 
in a free and independent way through an orderly and creative 
consciousness that seems to relate them to the same method of 
action as that accepted by the parents and the household of 
which they are a part. For they take to the idea without 
question and become the best kind of students. 

To have a clear conception of what you want to do before 
you do it, is as productive of self-control and self-reliance in 
block-building as in making out a household budget. To have 
the habit encouraged of asking the most intelligent questions 
possible, is as useful for the satisfaction of the child as the 
adult. Common sense and judgment result just as readily and 
effectively from experience in play, as in work. The fair deal 
in practice, is the joy of youth and the crowning delight in all 
games ; and discipline and reward on the whole, is perhaps better 
appreciated by that acute childlike sense of justice than by all 
the arguments and methods devised by his elders. 

These, as the six finer principles of the Efficiency System, con- 
trol or lead to the working of the other six, so that it becomes 
merely a matter of a customary form of approach for the child, 
as well as the parent that helps the self-development of both. 
We are too prone to look upon childhood as a merely physical, 
or animal period of existence, and treat it as though it were 
incapable of any other form of appreciation, whereas in truth 
it is perhaps, the most sensitively spiritual age of man, — unless 
it be the very aged, — and more subject to reason than is gen- 

215 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

erally believed, so that while the intelligent guiding of the in- 
creasing energy of the child should be one's first concern — for 
energy develops with normal use — such concern should not limit 
itself to the purely physical, or even mental but bear in mind 
constantly the constructive and altogether higher power of the 
psychic form of vitality coupled, or interpenetrating the bodily, 
and always present and active in child life. To properly appeal 
to the childish imagination is therefore to create a condition that 
will automatically sweep all before it. This the Efficiency Sys- 
tem can do for the reason that it works through a series of pic- 
tures rather than through a stilted order of exercises. It 
makes a practice first and always of starting with a vision, and 
then filling in with all the mental pictures that are obtainable in 
relation to the thing desired. This makes the spiritual sense 
lead the way to all action, followed closely by the moral thought 
of the rights of other people and the justice in the mode of pro- 
cedure, and the mental working of how to go about it to realize 
one's desire, together with the physical exercise of practice in 
the detail. Thus the individual concept is fostered through giv- 
ing it a more general relationship. 

The child is delighted to engineer his own movements. The 
necessity for repression gives way to instruction in the liberty of 
action. The child realizes from its elders that the only control 
needed is that of knowing the laws in the case, natural and 
social, and conforming thereto, which after all is the highest 
sort of self-control, or self-government, and the parent soon finds 
that the subject of discipline takes care of itself by properly 
encouraging both the spiritual as well as the physical energy to 
natural and spontaneous expression. The normal child, even 
ever so young, has a keen sense of its own latent resources. It 
likes to feel free to follow its own inclinations, and is independ- 
ently disposed from the beginning. What an unnatural pro- 
cedure it is then to suppress this constructive disposition by any 
method of punishment, inhibition, or servile attendance, further 
than is necessary to lead it in orderly fashion toward realizing 
its own desires. 

The nurse becomes an abomination when considered in the 
hght of the efficiency system, except in cases of sickness, or help- 

216 



CHILDREN AND THE EFFICIENCY SYSTEM 

lessness, for the reason that according to the servile custom of 
society, she is supposed to do for the child what the child would 
rather do for itself, if encouraged to learn the way, but will not 
so long as there is an easier method of arriving, and the spirit 
of play, or pleasant working of the imagination is lacking to 
rightly guide the hand. This of course would require more at- 
tention and intelligence than is usually employed by the average 
servant, but the rewards in later life from the right kind of care 
in developing initiative at the earliest possible age, would be of 
everlasting value. From the age of three, children should have 
instruction to make them self-reliant, not nurses to make them 
helpless. Just as little as possible should be done for the 
little ones if we are to have strong men and women, but 
everything in the world should be considered in relation to them ; 
keeping their confidence and love at any cost by letting them 
feel they can be trusted. There is no human problem that does 
not center about the child, and no avenue of research requires 
more definite and adequate knowledge of Nature's ways. The 
younger, like the older generation, yearn for personal liberty, 
and as liberty we know can be had only at the cost of respon- 
sibility and obedience to natural law, instruction and perse- 
verance to this end should be the goal of each day's training 
and not merely obedience to force. 

Cleanliness, for instance, is a hygienic necessity and a sign 
of good breeding, yet the boy or girl had better be a little less 
clean, if it be the best his effort can do, than made habitually 
spotless by another. So the child should pick up his own toys 
and other articles, and place them in proper manner, not be- 
cause it helps the grown-ups, for it is generally much easier to 
do it one's self than to persuade the little ones to the right de- 
sire, but because it is the Square Deal for the child, as well as 
everybody else, that he should take care of himself and his own, 
and have nothing that he cannot engineer in a way as not to 
unnecessarily occasion the discomfort of someone else. There 
are numberless ways of leading the young mind into such a con- 
viction, and the time should be spent here, rather than in the 
nursing of the child's weakness, for if the principles of efficiency 
as applied to liberty and independence, be applied at the earliest 

217 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

age, there will be no problem of what to do with the child in 
the application of domestic independence, or the Efficiency Sys- 
tem ; the child will take care of himself, or herself, and do some- 
what in caring for the concerns of those to whom he or she is 
related. The professional playmate would be a wise help just 
here; interesting the child to efficiency practice through the 
play instinct. A Day Nursery might also be incorporated under 
these principles, where children could come in contact with each 
other and see and take part from time to time in a proper sys- 
tem of pleasure, that would not produce the ingratitude and lack 
of reverence and sympathy the public institution is wont to do, 
where everything is done for the child placed more or less perma- 
nently under its protection, but rather through short stays and 
the novelty of change would it bring out the individual initiative 
to act more definitely at home in an auto-educational manner 
through the unfolding of the imagination to the value of the 
spiritual, as well as the material meaning of ideals worked out 
through the understanding of these principles, thereby giving 
a highly constructive outlet to that youthful energy so abun- 
dant in the normal modern child and so often dangerously re- 
pressed, or again riotously allowed to run rampant. 

The Child and the Efficiency System belong together. The 
child because of being Nature's own material, and Scientific 
Management, because it follows Nature's form of operating. 
They are closely related, and everything that is related should 
move as one. 



218 



CHAPTER XI 



THE BODY IN MOTION 



"And in man or woman a clean, strong, supple, firm-fibered body 
is more beautiful than the most beautiful face" 

"0! I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of 
the soul. 
Oil say now these are the soul" 

The quality of bodily motion is one of the most neglected fac- 
tors of every-day life. It is pathetic to see the average woman 
and man moving about in the business of living, with such utter 
disregard of the effect each movement is slowly but surely hav- 
ing not only upon the body, but upon the very consciousness of 
the inner soul. 

"I don't care how I do it, so long as I get through," seems 
to be the prevailing sentiment among workers, while about those 
who play, there is an atmosphere of preferring mere pastime to 
any thought of improvement, and the leisure hours are either 
times of simple "don't care," or periods when the devising of 
the artificial and the substituting of the unreal for the real, 
seem to control. 

The unthinking desire among women for soft, white hands, 
is an example of the latter, for while fine even texture, untainted 
by carelessness, or misuse, with delicate form, — the result of a 
sensitive and fully expressive mode of action, — is a feature to 
admire, the lifeless, inexpressive, colorless, meaningless, weak 
and undeveloped, limp member of a flabby and shapeless arm, so 
often seen among so-called Society women, is something to hide 
with shame, rather than to expose with the hope of admiration, 
because it is unreal in its correspondence to any right-balanced 
feminine conception. It should be looked upon rather as a 
menace to the real white hand as it should be. 

We have said before and must repeat it here that — 

In every motion there is a three-fold motive. Whether one 

219 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

is conscious of it or not, this triune effect is being indelibly 
made a part of one's entire personality, even of one's inner 
self. 

First, a motive of accomplishment. Of doing the thing in 
the most direct and effective way. 

Second, a motive of exhilaration, or health reaction; the re- 
sult of a right conception of one's physical forces and their use. 

Third, the motive of beauty, developed by the right feeling 
toward and for things, and a sense of grace and reverence within 
one's self. 

Much time we know has been devoted to the easiest and best 
manner of accomplishment. It has met the pressure of necessity 
in competition, both economic and social. The conservation of 
human life is also demanding that health shall have first consid- 
eration, and ways and means are being devised in every field for 
higher bodily fitness in industry, as well as in sports, but we 
have met with almost nothing up to the present, that assures 
proper consideration of the conservation of the beauty-value 
in motion. To be sure, we have the dance, the gesture, the study 
of dramatic expression, and so-called physical culture, but they 
are all more or less detached from the work-a-day world, and 
are practiced by the few only, as a professional vocation, or a 
dilettante avocation. The fact that every movement, wherever 
and however made, never fails to make for a finer or coarser tex- 
ture of the body, a more gracious and dignified bearing, or an 
awkward and slovenly one, and a fuller and richer expression of 
self, rather than the pinched and poor nature so often met with 
on life's rough way, has not sufliciently dawned upon the mind 
of the people generally. 

But the importance of this motive is paramount in that it is 
queen of the three. It controls the finesse and the feeling with 
which the success of the other two may be gauged, practically 
developing a personality that is preparing itself for higher and 
higher achievement. 

While the business of the world has called for "the getting of 
things done," the bodily cry has been for freedom from discom- 
fort. All true value we know is centered in quality, and al- 
though Spirituality, — or the psychic sense of beauty, — is the 

220 



THE BODY IN MOTION 

finest quality that endures, it is measured only by a feeling of 
charm in the personal touch. 

Now what does all this mean to the house-worker? Why 
should it be considered important, and how can the element of 
beauty be made to play its legitimate part ? 

It means that unless home occupations can be made to give 
back the qualities most desired by women, they will forever re- 
main common-place activities, accomplished from a sense of 
duty, or necessity, and in a spirit of drudgery. It means house- 
work will never attract the modern young maiden, unless it be 
made attractive in personal pleasure and profit, and it means 
further that life demands in the very cradle of its beginnings, — 
the home, — perfection in the midst of every-day happenings. 

It should be considered important not only by the worker, but 
by all who would think and feel, to develop the highest motives 
that are workable in the so-called lower occupations, for they 
include the masses and the majority of folk. The home as a uni- 
versal field of labor, should yield a forest of knowledge as to 
how to get the most out of work, and plant the seed of appre- 
ciation of the spiritual quality in all honest effort, and while 
the home-maker should consider the making of the home as her 
professional pleasure, the making of herself through her work 
should be the ideal of her every execution, not from a foolish 
or selfish sense of vanity, but because she is or should be the 
real charm of it all, and because the greatest educator yet 
known is example. 

The element of beauty in personality can be made to play its 
legitimate part when it interpenetrates all that is material. 

As there can be no life without movement, so intelligent mo- 
tion is the most direct and effective developer of life's values. 
"Power through repose" is a virtue for the removal of abnor- 
mal tension. It is not the suppression of motion, for then we 
would not live. But as practice for a better control of move- 
ment, consciously controlled relaxation is superior to all other 
methods. 

To understand one's own body from a motor standpoint is a 
first need. To know that although the law of gravitation keeps 
up a steady pull towards the earth, one can almost become like 

221 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

unto a bird in feeling. So marvelously constructed is man, that 
even without wings, he can have a sense of walking upon air. 
It is because he can hitch his nature to a star, and hold him- 
self up with the most spiritual muscle of the body, the muscle 
of the diaphragm. With the front part of this muscle poised 
well over the great toe, and the back of the head holding up eas- 
ily and lightly, an imaginary flexible string of pearls in the form 
of a readily adaptable spine, the poise for light movement is 
complete. Now add to this the thought that no matter where 
a motion may lead one, a high-up diaphragm and a pliable 
spine will follow, and the feeling that all right action has its 
first impulse in what is called the solar plexus, and a background 
for bodily motion has been started, so that whether dusting the 
stairs, or making a bed, this related position holds. 

To accomplish the most, the body must be constantly trained 
to respond to the slightest touch of the mind, so there may be no 
time wasted in clumsiness, or indefinite action. The shortest 
possible distance between one's thought and the work done, is 
through a supple, pliable, responsive body, made so by the kind 
of thought and feeling applied. 

Suppose one wishes to pick something up from the floor, why 
not bend down for it as lightly and gracefully as a child? It 
is not because age, or size prevents, for the actress or dancer 
who has both these, is as lithe and easy as need be, troubled not 
by having to move in this way, but it is in most cases because 
the body is not used intelligently, and often not enough. While 
to "live on the stairs," as some maids say they are expected to 
do, is not well, to constantly use an elevator and never lift the 
body up and down steps is a mistake in practice. A body 
should be exercised in all its parts every day, and the exercise 
should co-ordinate with the mind, that is, the thought should 
get from every motion all there is in it, through a sense of 
directness, a sense of exhilaration, a sense of touch. Every 
motion should be made to accomplish the very most possible, dis- 
couraging the fluttery, fidgety, unsteady manner of attack, so 
often met with, particularly among women, and it should be en- 
joyed to the utmost, as it cannot fail to be, the more perfect it 
becomes. It should be so contrived as to secure poise, expan- 

222 



THE BODY IN MOTION 

sion, and uplift, so that a sense of health may prevail. Then it 
should in addition have within it the right feeling about what 
is to be done. Everything that is handled, for instance, should 
be appreciated for itself if possible, but at any rate in its rela- 
tion to other things and to life. A common kitchen tea-kettle, 
if lifted as though it were a silver jug, and carried with the 
care of a rose jar, can be made to contribute not only to the 
efficiency, but the quality of one's movements. So the handling 
of delicate china and glass may be as rapid as though it were 
tinware, but it adds immeasurably to one's manner of touch. 
There is nothing absurd in developing a graceful sense of rev- 
erence in one's touch to be exercised in due measure upon the 
kitchen pump, the frying pan, or the loaf of bread, as well as 
the lace handkerchief, the choice book, or the piano keys. It 
is what it does to the person, not the thing, that is important, 
and to constantly have an attitude of quality for all that is 
outside of self produces in time the true quality in self. Such 
personal education not only leads to higher accomplishment, 
and better performed tasks generally — when time is not lost in 
aflfectation — but it has enormous possibilities for bodily culture 
in the ordinary household movements. To feel the spirit work- 
ing and moving through the body, in contact with all things, 
and to have such practice a part of the every-day routine con- 
stantly with one, in the many times repeated tasks of the house, 
is a fascinating and very worth-while sensation, making an effi- 
cient body by the cultivation of a more active, enthusiastic, and 
discriminating mind in relation to the manner of bodily motion, 
encouraging a strong body through finer and more intelligent 
co-ordination of feeling and muscle, and a truly buoyant habit 
of breathing — the result of joy, expansion, and uplift — and de- 
veloping a beautiful body through practice in the art of being 
filled with the character of the part to be played, with a delicacy, 
ease, lightness, grace, admiration, charm, and reverence through- 
out the whole of one's self, but especially in the feet and hands, 
and within the consciousness of the spirit of the motion itself. 
All this and more may be the legitimate result of housework, in- 
telligently performed. 



223 



CHAPTER XII 

THE BODY AND ITS GAEMENTS 

"0 fair undress, best dress! It checks no i>em. 
And every flowing limb in pleasure drowns. 
And heightens ease with grace" 

Why do we dress? We are told for protection, warmth, 
modesty, etc., and yet history has it these were not the original 
reasons. 

The first attempts in the wearing of clothes, according to the 
earliest records, were for the purpose of distinguishing rank, 
position, and birth, and the greatest number of coverings were 
worn not by those who were of necessity exposed to climate, but 
by the highest and most protected in office. While civilization 
has brought about all kinds of modem necessities for the 
wearing of various garments, these same fundamental truths 
still hold as the basis of fashion-changing, giving the subject 
certain psychic, personal and class-distinction meaning, rather 
than a solely utilitarian one. 

A new style is started by someone in authority, and forthwith 
the whole world of the hour falls in line, almost without ques- 
tion, gathering such force in the current as to defy public 
opinion, the preacher, parent, doctor, and even law itself. 

If beauty, or the truly aesthetic, were the initial cause of these 
often sudden and violent streams of fashionable rush, there 
would be little question further than how best to arrive at the 
goal, but unfortunately the novel and the commercial value 
dictate in very large part what shall and shall not be worn, 
until the woman feels herself a helpless victim upon the wave 
of the season's demands. And yet the rapid shifts of fashion 
have no doubt been of use in overcoming a native habit of con- 
servatism that is truly feminine. She has moved on, often more 
rapidly than was comfortable to her instinct, through sheer 
dress competition. 

224 



THE BODY AND ITS GARMENTS 

Perhaps if we probe deep into the woman heart and mind, we 
can find the real cause that first moved her to the thought of 
clothes, and then made of her a kind of slave, and perchance a 
way toward a new freedom even in dress may suggest itself. For 
"let me be dressed fine as I will, flies, worms and flowers exceed 
me still." 

The woman who dresses as beautifully as she knows how to 
dress, likes to feel her superiority and her personality extended 
beyond her smaller self, and it should be all to her credit, for 
she may wish to devote this larger sense of ego to the highest 
and holiest of purposes, as in many cases we know this to be 
true. There have been, however, two sad, yet strong reasons 
why she has depended so greatly upon external material for 
this effect. First, because woman was supposed to remain in 
an undeveloped state as far as her mind and her worldly status 
was concerned, and leave to man the full exercise of all faculties, 
and also because her religion was interpreted to declare the body 
as of the Earth, vile and corrupt, something to live apart from 
and dominate as far as possible, and to take no real spiritual ac- 
count of it at any time. 

Human nature has always known these sentiments were not 
complete truth and yet it has labored under the yoke of a mis- 
taken impression for generations. Men have placed women 
upon a pedestal where little activity, or comradeship, was ex- 
pected of her, and where draped in gorgeous robes he could 
adore her in silence. With no thought of resentment, she has 
tried faithfully to do his bidding and return to him the happi- 
ness he deserved, but her pedestal has become intolerable, and 
her many changing robes are irksome, for the reason that she 
has not earned her own way to its heights, nor found herself in 
dress alone, and besides such placing isolates her from him she 
would be near. Far rather would she descend for a little, if 
need be, In his mind — though not in fact — and work her way 
back to this place where her real self can rest content with the 
thought that her own effort and her own charm can draw the 
man she loves up if need be to her true side. 

Woman's dress is more than covering, and more than trinkets 
would suggest. 

225 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

It bespeaks revolutions and reformations, and carries with it 
courts and fortunes. No great or definite advance in civiliza- 
tion but breaks away from its traditions of dress, just because 
it has within it a psychic something that makes it in truth a 
part and an extension of the personal life. The Body and its 
Garments, and yet how little the garment has been related to 
the body as it should be, the body of poetry, the body of free 
and beautiful action. 

In time past, we feared to show the legs, and so to move as 
we would, they were disguised by a great hoop. Then the 
stomach and bosom must be bound out of sight, and have little 
or no motion allowed them. The abdomen becomes unsightly, 
and a lump is put upon the back as a balance. The neck and 
head is piled high, and the conspicuous arms and hands are 
draped in long folds and lace. The hips are enlarged, and 
again reduced. The back is hollowed in, and then rounded out, 
so that we never know where the next lump, or bodily depres- 
sion will be called for. All in a vain effort to harmonize and 
symmetrize the female form divine, having a vague sense of 
physical fitness, but arriving at each realization through an 
abnormal and artificial route. Yet one may conclude that the 
present standards of dress have been the result of the evolution 
and consciousness of bodily form and that they plainly show 
the process of relying upon the garments to beautify and har- 
monize the woman into a moving poem, a false and unfair one. 
She must do the work in and with herself, and the true stand- 
ards of fashion will come when the form itself is made a thing 
of beauty, and is draped to enhance its own particular and 
personal charm. Color, material, line and ornament will be so 
related to bodily expression as to be unfashionable, unless har- 
moniously combined. There should be a reasonableness in dress 
and an adaptation to use, as well as artistic effect, for the gar- 
ment has an influence upon the individual, just as great, if not 
greater, than the person has upon the garment. This we find 
particularly true in the home, where if one is dressed with care 
and becomingness, one feels and acts in a more hospitable mood 
than if attired in slovenly manner. In fact clothes have a very 
marked effect upon the character and kind of one's work. An 

226 



THE BODY AND ITS GARMENTS 

apron, — which by the way is a weapon of defense, — encourages 
careless and sloppy habits, particularly after it begins to be 
somewhat soiled. To work in a truly defensive way and not 
care what happens, one need but don an old degraded frock and 
"pitch in," as the saying goes. 

But why should one feel that old and mussy garments are 
more suited to a working mood.'' Is it not because of the mussy 
standard of housework that prevails? Little do we realize how 
greatly the mode of dress affects the manner of work as well as 
the movements of the person. To be particular with both, takes 
perhaps more time in each operation, but infinitely less in the 
clearing up process, and the more one works and lives under 
the influence of a high standard of dress, the more skillful and 
rapid becomes the nature of one's movements. The writer has 
experimented many a time by preparing dinner in an evening 
gown, even with a train, and in doing a day's washing, or pre- 
serving, in a fresh silk or satin frock, with of course no apron, 
and it has always contributed to the value of the work and not 
injured the gown in the testing. 

One of the frequent questions asked in the servantless house 
is : "But who goes to the door?", and, "How can you see people 
when you are in the midst of housework?" The writer, how- 
ever, has never found this embarrassing for the reason that she 
works even at the crudest of household tasks, dressed as though 
at leisure, or at play, and always with a feeling of bodily self- 
respect, making the most of the fact that if a garment worn 
for a special occasion, lends dignity and grace to the scene, it 
likewise has its potent influence upon the spirit and form of 
one's every occupation. Extravagant garments are therefore 
not extravagant when they are made to give a reflex educational 
value, — which they can do, to an astonishing degree, — but costly 
clothes carelessly worn, and valued only for vanity's sake, are 
not only a wicked waste of money, but a menace to the wearer. 

A woman may appear to dress a la mode, and yet with quite 
another motive in mind. Fortunate is she who can follow the 
spirit of the fashion ; can read the inner meaning of the form 
and interpret the details, in relation to the possibilities of her 
own body, and not follow blindly and ignorantly every extreme 

227 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

that Is in vogue. Perhaps the American is too ready to adopt 
and adapt the fashions of foreign lands, to think seriously of 
the creation of an art of her own. For the designing, the mak- 
ing, and the wearing of garments is a world in itself, and needs 
to be studied closely and intelligently if we would understand 
its fascination and its highest purpose, and not allow it to play 
a part that is dangerous to character and purse alike. 

Particularly should the subject of dress be properly inter- 
preted to the child mind, for the influence at this age is lasting 
and the impression strong, although the simple, loose, daintily 
designed children's clothes of to-day might teach the grown-ups 
a lesson in beauty. Of course the economics of dress is every- 
where a controlling factor, but whatever is found to give a 
profit, is a good economic investment, therefore the amount of 
profit in dress should be our first concern, and whatever adds 
to the quality of one's activities, or thought of environment, or 
character is worth the price of such profit. The body first, then 
the garments, and not too many of them for health's sake. The 
beauty and perfection of the first whether at rest, or in motion, 
is the excuse for the second. 

The slender, free, graceful, highly spiritualized body that is 
centered in the thought of beauty, is worthy the garment that 
would frame such a soul, for the superiority of this one is para- 
mount, and the subtle extension of such a personality should be 
a blessing to all who behold. 



228 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE TRAINING AND BEAUTY OF THE HAND 

"For through the South, the custom still commands 
The gentleman to kiss the lady's hands" 

No writing on the Home from the personal standpoint would 
be complete without some consideration given to the hand, for 
this remarkable organ of the body enters intimately into the 
useful, the beautiful, and the cultural side of the house, and 
through its touch, brings together all that is of the external, 
to be played upon by the characteristics of the inner conscious- 
ness and moulded into form. 

The value of one's individuality and the prophecy of its 
ultimate use in the world, is expressed perhaps more definitely 
in the hand even than in the face, for the reason that the features 
of the face may mislead through immobility, or the inheritance 
of certain mimic tendencies, while the hand has no such means 
of hiding its real meaning either in its shape or movements. 

As the foot is related to the emotional nature of the indi- 
vidual, so the hand suggests the kind of thought and mentality 
to be found back of it. In fact the connection between the 
hand and brain is so direct, that what the fingers are made to do, 
reacts immediately in developing the mind. It actually seems 
to make little difference which is educated, provided the educa- 
tion is of the right kind, for mind-training that does not lead 
to action is abnormal and unsafe, and hand culture that con- 
siders merely the beauty of the external surface, affects the 
brain but in superficial manner. 

Of course all hands have certain characteristics in common, 
and unless deformed, are alike in physical make-up ; the same 
number of fingers, with their joints, the thumb, muscles, skin, 
nerves, veins, etc., with the required twenty-seven bones of the 
frame. Each has strength, a proportionate amount of skill, 
and a sense of touch, and yet we believe no member of the body 

229 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

possesses so marked a degree of individuality in character as 
the hand. No two pairs have ever been created ahke, and no 
two people use their hands in the same way. A differentiation is 
always to be found in form and appearance. As the character- 
istics of the person are brought into use by each constructive 
soul, the hand is impressed with the kind of individuality de- 
veloped, and the principle should hold here as elsewhere, of 
allowing and encouraging all the free personal expression pos- 
sible, avoiding any set and mechanical methods, at the same 
time assuring a proper sense of realization as to the general and 
particular capabilities of the human hand, and the laws under 
which it may best operate. 

Both the mentality and the emotional nature affect the hand 
so strongly that even its practical skill depends upon how these 
two are co-ordinated, for while it is largely mental in its 
activity, the will determines its doing. To understand just 
what its motive may be, why it should be animated by the high- 
est suggestion at all times, and how it can be made to show, 
through cultural thought, the real refinement of which it is 
capable, is our present subject for consideration. 

While the amount and kind of individuality of the hand is 
more or less of an unconscious happening, the mentality ex- 
pressed is susceptible of a very high degree of training. To 
reduce the time between thought and hand action, and to con- 
stantly attend to the development of the latter, through a 
progressive enlargement and refinement of the former, is to give 
it an everlasting motive of intelligence, until in the truly trained 
hand, the thought and the carrying out of the idea to perfec- 
tion, is almost simultaneous. The manner of doing, and the 
amount and kind of strength used, may be said to result from 
the quality of desire or interest applied. 

If one has no heart in one's work, there is little of real value 
accomplished, particularly in personal expression ; therefore the 
sense of touch helps enormously to first create a desire and then 
strengthen its impulse. The tips of the fingers are as the fine 
wire to be played upon here, for to the extent that one develops 
sensitiveness of touch, and makes this a practice, the interest is 
enlarged through appreciation and a reflex feeling of pleasure. 

230 



THE TRAINING AND BEAUTY OF THE HAND 

The hand thus becomes more careful, dainty, and beautiful in 
habit. 

The maid in the Kitchen should not be blamed for much of 
the breakage she causes, for the reason that her fingers are not 
trained to properly feel what she does. They are carelessly 
thrust into all kinds of temperatures, hot and cold alike, are 
made to "speed up" without the right kind of high-speed mo- 
tive, and readily become through work, exposure, and lack of 
consideration, callous and irresponsible when applied to any fine 
use. It matters not what sort of work is to be done, the fineness 
of touch is essential in its cultural value. Take for instance, 
the handling of a scrubbing brush, or the wringing out of a 
clumsy cloth; the ordinary way to do such things is to apply a 
heavy force, and a spreading and coarsening pressure and 
movement, when they may be done even more rapidly and with 
better result to the person and material If a slender and intelli- 
gent force is applied, evenly distributed throughout the entire 
hand together with the feeling of enjoyment and reverence in 
the contact. 

So with every form of employment, the manner of approach 
and the feeling back of it should be more jealously guarded 
even than the kind of work to be approached. To be ready to 
put one's hand to the plow is praiseworthy, but to know how to 
handle the plow, to make the most of Its every possibility, and 
to be the better for having touched it, Is an art to cultivate. 

There is of course a certain technique to be learned In all 
endeavor, a kind of flexibility, an evenness of motion, the under- 
standing of the right use of the parts of the hand, as well as 
of the whole as a unit, and the particular needs of each opera- 
tion, but the crowning effort should be centered in properly 
developing the sense of touch In relation to them all. This 
cannot be too exquisite, or highly trained for every practical 
purpose, provided it Is made to co-ordinate with all the charac- 
teristics, and co-operate in the system of training applied. It 
is not necessary to leave such an effect to piano study only, for 
the same result may come from the same method of practice In 
almost any field of careful cultivation. The quality, texture, 
and shape, or contour, of the hand are affected in proportion to 

231 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

the understanding, the kind of sensation encouraged, and the 
value of the motions persisted in. The human hand is dis- 
tinguished in its movements from the fact of its having the 
power of opposition in the thumb to the other fingers alone, or 
united, and as the thumb corresponds to the will, so the manner 
of using this opposition is of moment. Again the first finger 
is of the mind particularly, and is called the Index Finger. The 
second, or middle, is typical of the individual, and helps the 
mind and will. The third is the art, or creative finger, the 
hardest to develop in practical ways, but conspicuous in that 
it represents directly the sum total of the man, his personality. 
The little finger is the psychic, or spiritual lever that completes 
the whole, and while it is the smallest in size, 'tis usually the 
finest in form, and when properly used has the highest amount 
of sensitiveness. The inner palm is of one's self ; the outer, or 
back, the formal or social side. In the wrist lies the secret of all 
fine hand movement. This joint should have full attention, for 
it practically controls all the others. Its freedom, ease, grace, 
and strength is of great importance, and in every motion of the 
hand it should take the lead; whether in pulling, pushing, 
squeezing, or reaching, or the hghter, gentler acts of the arts, 
or the drawing-room, the wrist should be guided first, for only 
with the right power of oneness, will the right coming together 
of the parts take place. This, then, is the first thought of the 
hand as a whole in housework. To lift a knife, plate, rug, or 
what-not, the hand should be led by the wrist moving toward 
the object first. It should also be the reservoir of strength, 
and the controller of all the forces brought into play, for 
while the arm and shoulder, as well as the whole person, enters 
into each function of the fingers, the wrist is the telling point, 
never to be forgotten no matter how direct the need for action 
may seem. 

The best way to use the hand in housework is to train it in 
the sense of touch so that the mind and soul may freely play 
through it upon every occasion, — mundane or festive, — with 
little choice as to what it does, compared to the decision of how 
it shall do it, the nature and the quality of energy enlivening it. 

The beating of a cake, the setting of the table, the opening 

232 



THE TRAINING AND BEAUTY OF THE HAND 

of the windows, or the carrying of garbage, makes no dif- 
ference, provided the hand is used beautifully and made to 
give in full measure to the evolution and perfection of the life 
within. 

While it is silly to believe applied care from the outside can 
take the place of the vital care of the spirit, it is likewise foolish 
to think all can be done from the inside. Both should have 
consideration. Extreme care should be taken to avoid touching 
hot or cold articles as much as possible, and to develop the 
power of withdrawing the feeling if such temperature contact 
is necessary. There is no excuse for unduly soiling and dis- 
coloring the hands, and although gloves, particularly those 
made of rubber, are not to be advised in general, when such 
need arises, it is better to use them than to deliberately dis- 
figure the hand, although the hand that is full of life and vi- 
tality protects itself to a great extent by producing the right 
kind of moisture at the right instant, and smoothing the surface 
from internal cell building, but there are moments when noth- 
ing but a pumice stone fitted to the shape of the finger, and 
cleaned — repeatedly while using — with a stiff nail brush and 
soap can be relied upon to do the work in the time required. A 
simple lotion of half and half glycerine and witch hazel may be 
used to advantage if the hands chap, or honey and sweet oil, or 
lemon juice perhaps if the hand needs whitening. 

On the whole the hand should be treated with more care and 
consideration than the face, for it is in the last analysis the 
most spiritual member we have, in that it not only moulds the 
way for the expression of the inner nature, but is also the 
medium of the most important of the five senses, in the making 
of environment and the proper living therein, the sense of touch. 
The cultivated hand becomes one of the greatest of human 
assets, not the white, inane, lifeless type, but the truly expressive 
member. No subject is more fertile in possibilities for educa- 
tion, in variety of expression and in being always a form of 
practice available, than the subject of housework. For the 
thing that has been condemned as a hand destroyer, when 
properly studied, understood, and enjoyed, is found in reality 
to prove a hand beautifier, and the woman's hand that is fair 

233 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

enough to warrant the kind of gallantry that has ever been its 
due, must adequately meet the requirements of modern feminine 
standards and become, through assembling all the virtues within 
its reach, the veritable symbol of righteousness in nature and in 
truth, ready and able to both rock the cradle and rule the world. 



m 



234 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE FIVE SENSES 



"How sweetly sounds the voice of a good woman. 
It is so seldom heard, that when it speaks 
It ravishes all senses" 

It is unfortunate that the word sensual is limited in its usual 
meaning to a voluptuous use of the senses, for we would have 
each sense and all the senses, so encouraged as to be sensuous 
in character, yet spiritual in nature. That is, a high degree 
of pleasure should accompany the exercise of each sense, an en- 
joyment for enjoyment's sake, together with a desire to absorb 
all they have to give, in order to use the result for still higher 
personal development, for as no one of the senses has any power 
to delight us except for the inner consciousness of that sense, 
so all may be divinely inspired, with an innate perception and 
contribute through use, to the bloom and perfection of the soul's 
highest atmosphere, and as far as we know, there is no word 
that expresses just this thought of sense-culture. For taken 
together they form as it were the very perfume of the inner life. 
Full of sense, or sensible, has a very practical sound, that sug- 
gests good judgment, clear reasoning, etc., but little that might 
be called exquisite, magnetic or psychic. Sensation, on the 
other hand, may but convey a thought of weakness, or of partial 
development, but the sensorium of the man, or the seat of per- 
ception, where all seven senses — if we have seven — co-ordinate 
and co-operate into a feeling of the man himself ; the conscious- 
ness of his own being, full of life, within the temple of his own 
building, is, so far as we have been able to find, still unexpressed 
in a single word from the purely sense standpoint. Yet we all 
know this feeling. It is a part of the fulfillment of one's nature. 
It belongs to the complete realization of the soul itself, and is 
essential to its worth and beauty. 

If therefore the senses play this important role in the growth 

2S5 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

and enrichment of the ego, as there seems no reason to doubt, 
surely they are worthy special and every-day attention, that 
the free, spontaneous response from a well-ordered and intelli- 
gently ordained environment may result, for it is the limitation 
put upon their use, rather than the conditions made for their 
enjoyment, that is the danger point. To cater only to physical 
taste or a pleasure in eating beyond one's normal need, instead 
of developing a higher and finer sense of taste that would give 
satisfaction in the psychic field, is the mistake. For the nerves 
and humors of the body require attention as well as the stomach, 
and when properly fed give delight to this sense greater than 
any full stomach can give, and in fact become master of this 
unruly organ, directing it to far greater comfort and satisfac- 
tion in its work. 

The same is true of smell, if it be allowed to degenerate into 
a mere carping critic ; through artificial odors and atmospheres 
it becomes a destroyer, rather than a preserver, of the body, for 
while its function, as we know, is of course to give pleasure, 
that is but a by-product of its real purpose of converting the 
surrounding perfumes into an inner charm that calls forth 
wonder-working in the entire circulation. The vital vapors 
and ethers that give joy to the nose of the wise one, are the 
protectors and accumulators of the best substance of life. 

The value of touch is only comparable with consciousness it- 
self, for it affects the entire inner and outer feeling of the body, 
making it comfortable, rested, and happy, or miserable, weary 
and wretched. The entire spirit of the man responds inspir- 
ingly to a perfect bed, or an invigorating bath, and is depressed 
and troubled or annoyed when in contact with irritating sub- 
stances, and a state of feeling is often anticipated from what 
one knows will be the effect of touch, and so, endlessly are we 
acquainted with its marvelous workings, the value of which are 
educational in the highest degree. As a guide in the dark of 
the many worlds about us, mental, spiritual, or physical, it is 
the sense that leads toward the light, in temperature, and in 
texture, in contour and in atmosphere. 

As to the eyes, they speak for themselves, for the sense of 
sight is the first and perhaps the easiest to cultivate, but the 

236 



THE FIVE SENSES 

last to be satisfied. It seems to have the power both to push 
and pull the intelligence and understanding into new and in- 
teresting fields, and when properly focussed, forever furnishes 
the imagination and all other faculties with new food for 
activity. Color also is subject to this sense alone, and what un- 
speakable joy it brings! The wonder of a sunset, the gorgeous 
tones of a flame, and the beautiful shades of the night enter pro- 
foundly into the sensuous soul and fill it anew with life-giving 
strength. 

Again one is lulled to harmonious rest with sound that is 
just to one's liking. Though music is an established art ap- 
preciated and enjoyed by most people, producing more of an 
actual sensation in the body than is generally thought possible, 
the sense of hearing is perhaps the most abused of the senses. It 
must endure the sounds that come within its reach, and the noises 
that madden the nerves and shock the whole person, and al- 
though one may reason one's self into indifference as to the 
greater part, and even a kind of pleasant appreciation of what 
seems to be a necessary noise, the irritating sounds of the civil- 
ized world, are little less than barbaric, for instead of bringing 
the human being into a unit of harmony, ever ready to vibrate 
to his own natural key in the universe, they scatter his forces, 
tension his life, and put him generally out of tune with himself 
and his entire surroundings. 

Thus have we touched upon the possibilities of the five senses 
in order to suggest their best usage in the home, the environ- 
ment of which should be a studied school of perpetual and in- 
spirational suggestion, because no one can tell how important 
becomes the material, unconsciously but continuously being in- 
cluded in one's training, and having a permanent and repro- 
ductive effect upon one's growing character. 

Special subjects and objects should be encouraged for the 
right exercise of each separate sense, and all the work of the 
house so ordained as to form a medium for the co-ordination 
and co-operation of all the senses in play upon each undertak- 
ing, making one ever alive to the possibilities of a personally 
cultural attitude by the opening of every avenue of one's being 
ready for an impressive intake and an expressive output. 

237 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Again the universal consciousness of feeling that human 
nature has more than the five senses, is to be considered here, and 
the classic phrase of being — "scared out of his seven senses," — 
makes it appropriate to inquire into the character of the other 
two. While the word sense is used in a variety of connections, 
as sense of time and place, sense of reason, of beauty, of imagina- 
tion, the creative sense, etc., perhaps the latter, or the sex sense, 
might be called the sixth. And the sense of being, that con- 
sciousness of a completed whole, expressed in the sense of per- 
ception, or the intuitive sense, the seventh. 

Surely the home is the haven of these, in the starting and 
establishing of their normal working, and the suggestion for 
their highest place and functioning. 

The sex sense may be interpreted as the power of manifesting 
self according to the ability to produce after one's kind, and 
has a world of use as large as life itself. The male affecting 
the female into psychic expression, the female feeding the male 
for spiritual use, so that whether it be exercised in the creating 
of a poem, a home, or a soul, it becomes the vortex of the 
activity of a double trinity of sensation and is the guiding star 
in the upward and onward evolution of the race. 

Although the science of eugenics deserves all the honor that is 
its due, the study and practice of a human and a sublime form 
of sexuality with abundant education along the widest possible 
interpretation of its functional usefulness, would do much to 
solve the problem of mating, by producing a higher quality of 
material with which to mate. 

Intuitively we are but the result of all these animated parts, 
and whether at work or at play, whether in the home or out of 
the home, the sensations experienced are the developing 
processes that make it possible to be sure of one's self and one's 
attachments. To know things from the inside out, to enter into 
and to have control over the situation through actual knowl- 
edge acquired as to meanings and to evolve into a stronger and 
happier state or character by appreciating the senses as the 
real basis of spirituality, — for in the harmonious operation of 
the occult seven, and their spiritous practice through responsive 
emotional moods, — lies the secret of human charm, the beauty 

238 



THE FIVE SENSES 

of human form, the delight in human presence, and the glory 
and sweetness of God's highest human gift, the gift of a rich, 
beautiful and expressive voice in speech. 

"Oh ! how wonderful is the human voice ! 
It is indeed the organ of the soul !" 



239 



CHAPTER XV 

THE NEED OF BEAUTY IN EVERY-DAY LIFE 

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all ye know on earth, and 
all ye need to know" 

"If by love and nobleness we take up into ourselves the beauty^ 
we admire, we shall spend it again on all around us" 

While love of beauty Is one of the great fundamental in- 
stincts in nature, love of truth may be said to be more or less 
acquired, in that beauty is an appreciation, while truth is a per- 
ception. To feel the charm of a thing, does not always insure 
knowledge, nor does the understanding guarantee the will to 
love. Still to truly exist with perfect enjoyment, one must 
insure one's self in an appreciative perception. Conform sin- 
cerely to one's being; to what is real in the facts of life, and to 
the rules of its acts in standard practice and ideals. In the 
same process one must appreciate the harmonious conditions of 
such diverse elements in unity. In other words, the aesthetic 
sense is not satisfied until it is delighted in sensation and en- 
lightened in perception, for to be true in all respects is to be 
beautiful. The quality of beauty presupposes the element of 
truth. This being so, is it not important that such an emotion 
be given every chance for expression.? For instinct moves into 
knowledge, knowledge into perception and perception into the 
higher and intuitive creation of the thing itself. 

Beauty not only ravishes the senses and gives joy to the 
mind, but it evolves to best advantage the very innermost life, 
for when a thing is seen in the true sense of beauty, it relates 
itself to all that has gone before, and to a vision of what is to 
come. Even tragedy and torture, sorrow and accident, lose 
their horror when characterized in the setting of the whole of 
life's drama, for then their meaning is clearly creative, and 
death itself but the assurance of life. 

If the value of beauty applies in a general way, it is found 

240 



THE NEED OF BEAUTY IN EVERY-DAY LIFE 

to be even more truly productive in particular forms and shapes, 
as it is the element of all others that makes careful ensemble, or 
the bringing together of parts into a satisfying and centered 
oneness. 

The school that is accenting beauty is founding itself in the 
deepest and strongest of motives. The mere external surround- 
ing is perhaps but the shell. Although sooner or later it lends 
itself to the great business of character-making, and the child 
that is made to see and to feel the pleasure of an attractive 
environment — or better still is made to build his own — is forti- 
fied against the dangers of any ugly side in existence, both in 
thought and in act. For after all, everything that is not right 
is hideous, discordant and isolated. 

All intelligent effort, therefore, should be focussed upon 
bringing out a proper sense of proportion and harmony, and 
attaching it to every interest in life, if we would assure moder- 
ation and temperance in the doings of the people. 

Again, nothing can reach its maximum usefulness until it 
includes the element of beauty, nor is a thing beautiful that has 
no use, whether it be a woman, a vase, an idea, or a kitchen 
utensil. 

The standard of beauty suggested in the Experiment Station, 
was such as to bring together the parts of each article into a 
charming and efficient unit of use and beauty, embodying form, 
color, proportion and composition. Each room was, as far 
as possible an expression of its best meaning through the har- 
monious grouping of standard parts and furnishings, and the 
spirit of the house bespoke itself in a tone of the higher per- 
sonal life. Personal in the sense of being the result, or atmos- 
phere, of an ever-developing personality. For the home is in 
truth the center of the Nation's aesthetic progress. Only that 
which is permanent emanates from here, therefore the totem 
of each house should have a beauty and dignity all its own. 

Thus will this earth life put on a heavenly garment and 
extend its joy of being into the uttermost parts. 

Where the true body will prove itself a form incorruptible, 
and all that is called work shall be given a new conception. 
Pleasure and profit will be cultivated in ever higher and higher 

241 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

forms through the spirit and love of beauty universally in- 
corporated as a unifying force in individual consciousness, and 
a practical essential in all home life. 

"One of the sure tests of a real home is that the very thought 
of it relaxes our nerves, mind, muscles, and gently and firmly 
restores to one peace, and faith in the goodness and beauty of 
God's great plan." 



242 



PART III 
THE PROGRESSIVE HOME 



m 



An altar place in which my heart can f,re 
Its social incense to familiar Gods; — 
A refuge from the world's chastising rods. 

To which the world-worn spirit can retire. 

A nest built in the house-tree of the earth. 
From which the focal hearth can beam its rays 
To all the homeless in the cheerless days. 

And reach in influence through the world's wide girth. 

— Anspacher. 



4 



4 



i| 



CHAPTER I 



THE HOME AND POLITICS 



"Who, born for the universe, narrowed his mind 
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind" 

The fact that politics has a permanent and vital place in 
home-making cannot be questioned, if it is realized that govern- 
ment itself is but the management of the conditions and materials 
for the larger or collective home, and that the very word politics 
— derived from the Greek, polls, city — suggests a congregation 
of homes. 

Unhappily, however, the subject is interpreted in two diver- 
gent ways. One, as those measures wisely planned and pur- 
sued in the interest of public good. The other, the devising 
of any means, right or wrong, adapted to an end — good or evil. 
If the home, therefore, is to endure in the midst of such con- 
fusion of political purpose, it needs must step to the front and 
replace itself with its principal concerns as the first, last and 
only real object of any government. Politics would thus be- 
come in popular practice as well as in words the way of adminis- 
tering the government for the general welfare. It would, in- 
stead of lending itself to intrigue designed for selfish ends, as is 
too often the case, in reality be a method of arriving at what 
is best for the prosperity of all the people, all the time. 
Political parties, as we know them, are merely groups of differ- 
ing opinion, and although they foster prejudice and break up 
the thought of the country into warring and bitter factions, it 
is a psychological truth that there are two fundamental atti- 
tudes of human nature to be found here, as elsewhere. These 
might be called the positive and negative. The one, born of 
courage to risk and desire to move on ; a growing, progressive, 
unsatisfied spirit, ready to give of itself if it can but push for- 
ward. The other, of cautious and careful demeanor, fearing 
to fail and preferring the present ; a doubtful, a thankful, con- 

247 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

servative make-up. Both, in all their varieties, are essential to 
a healthy normal system, and while «very man is more or less 
a mixture of the two, a party founded in principles peculiar 
to each would ultimately satisfy all types, instead of the pres- 
ent custom of forming temporary factions about a single issue, 
or a mere matter of method, which eventually must lead to par- 
tial thought and feeling and give occasion for political and 
national catastrophe. 

Food, Shelter and Clothing are the three objects of interest 
in the State as they are in the Home. Other things are of 
moment that these may be arrived at, most cheerfully and con- 
veniently, and in the last analysis the State is but the larger 
and more complex form of Home. Hence what affects the one, 
has a direct influence upon the other, and the management of 
one depends upon the standard of the other. 

There was a time when the public had little to say as to the 
aff'airs of the household. The protection of property from 
assault, and the form of taxing in exchange for such service, 
were the principal functions, but now there is scarcely a subject 
that is wholly the part of the private Home, or that is not 
afi'ected and moulded by politics and the government. From 
the building of the house, with conformity to municipal regu- 
lations to its inspection and the standard of material used, even 
to the last fixture and article of furniture placed, or the supplies 
purchased; from the gas, electricity and water, to the box of 
matches, and the bottle of milk, we have but to look about and 
discover the fact that politics is interwoven with, and affecting 
these things as never before. In truth, home-making can no 
longer be said to be a private undertaking. It is a public 
function, regulated and formulated by local and State 
authorities. 

The School with its effect upon child-life is almost exclusively 
the work of political appointment. The Public Library again 
is the result of the State. And the Market, with its life-giving 
or death-carrying contents, is subject to law and official rulings. 
Our going and coming, the acts of one's neighbors, the railroads, 
the trolleys, the roads, are in the last analysis ordained and 
controlled by political factors, and designed to develop a locality 

248 



THE HOME AND POLITICS 

in proportion to the intelligence of the officials and the kind of 
co-operation established. The larger and better housekeeping 
means efficient government, and the best possible talent for pub- 
lic office. In other words, the scientific selection of our political 
workmen, as well as proper training for their particular duties. 

While there are many sides of the government that will for- 
ever require the masculine attitude, there are again other phases 
that can never reach any high practical standard except through 
feminine handling and it is the woman who should make them 
her responsibility. 

Take, for example, the food for the world. While men can 
grow it and store it, women can best prepare and distribute it, 
for it is the woman who feeds the race, intellectually and psychic- 
ally, as well as physically, and she should have guard over the 
market as well as the single table of her own home, for without 
the larger attention, the private effort is lost. Little avails in the 
most careful home-preparation even with all the virtues attached, 
if the substance has entered the door through any road of 
dietetic pollution. For thus her work is lost and the home much 
endangered. Again, she is the nurse, the protector and shielder 
of life, and succeeds best where the mothering, or nurturing 
function is required, from the creation of the child, to the organ- 
izing and bringing into being of an ideal, a poem or a world 
standard ; her patience, her faith, and her sympathy are elements 
hard to resist, for they burrow deep into the heart of things, 
and thereby know the contents of all at first hand. So that 
while it is the function of man to provide and build, it is the 
duty of woman to guard and use. Indeed it is man's pleasure 
to capture and conquer and bring back the spoils to her, who 
will guarantee to him the best results. And for this world-fight 
he designs and produces the tools and weapons, the machines 
and plans, while she brings forth the occasions and the subjects 
for their use, and becomes skilled and elevated in their presence. 
She it is who raises the standard, while he makes the standard 
work. 

If there ever was a time when the standard of politics needed 
raising, it is here and now. In every locahty the demand is for 
higher and more efficient service in public affairs, in order that 

249 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

daily living may be healthier, happier, and more profitable, and 
while of course it is after all the business and result of the in- 
dividual and his private life — for one reaps what he sows — 
yet on the other hand, the individual is almost helpless in the 
face of the standards of society and the collective thought. The 
only thing to do then is to unite and establish a form of new 
effort. The government is represented by only half the ele- 
ments of human nature, while public welfare demands the con- 
sideration of all. The State needs the woman. It needs her 
if anything, more than she needs the vote. Men, even with the 
best intentions, strive hardest for those things that accumulate 
power and wealth, and neglect often entirely, the real issues of 
life. The child, its food and its life, are on the other hand, 
never forgotten for a moment by the woman of any feminine 
integrity, thus leading her back forever to the home complete, 
the thing for which government is designed and from which 
alas ! it wanders far afield. The remedy is for both men and 
women to become active politicians of the right order, not the 
intriguing partisan, self-seeking sort, but the earnest and in- 
terested workers for peace, justice, and righteousness, the cour- 
ageous champions of health and the doers of deeds that will 
count in child profit. Thus will the home never be forgotten 
in the spirit of the chase, but ever and anon move ahead in 
strength and progressive worth, enlarging its place in politics 
and public affairs by the constant raising of its standard, in the 
production of better citizens and the encouragement of a more 
perfect form of government. Then will the home and politics 
be rightfully joined together. The welfare of each, the con- 
cern of the other. Better homes will give us better government, 
and better politics better homes. 



250 



CHAPTER II 



THE HOME AND SOCIETY 



"The best society and conversation is that in which the heart has 
a greater share than the head" 

From a bird's-eye view of the earth one would see the houses 
gathered together in groups more or less closely associated, 
according to the nature and locality of the settlement. The 
reason for this might appear at first to be a nearby church, a 
school, a railway station, or perchance a trolley — but these 
things come because of people, not before them. The real 
cause of a town's beginning has to do with air and site, the kind 
of soil, and always with the water ; people follow these essentials, 
and they are of necessity the basis for the physical relation of 
homes, but another and stronger cause is found in the fact that 
the people within the houses, therefore the houses themselves, 
have a relationship that is purely social, drawing them together 
in a friendly and delightful way, as the spring of water draweth 
the traveller for refreshment. 

And this is the side of the home we would discuss here, for 
it is the people, after all, that make a city. Not the buildings 
or the spires, high land, or lighted fires — but the hopes and 
ambitions, the joys and the loves, the industry and the needs 
of the human spirit, humanly related to its kind. These are 
the things that count in the drawing of people together, and 
the kind of kinship all homes have in common, — ready to re- 
spond and be moulded as sympathy suggests. 

In the early stages of society we find the homes with the 
largest acreages, the finest prominences, the greatest accumula- 
tion of riches, or the lordly spirit of ownership, counting as the 
highest standard of achievement. 

This developed a kind of domestic competition, that induced 
social strife and enmity and inevitably produced an atmosphere 
in which everybody, through trying to gain the most for himself, 

251 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

was unconsciously contributing a selfish and discordant part, 
that in the end reacted unfavorably upon all alike, making even 
the physical relationship less profitable than the natural environ- 
ment seemed to warrant; various nuisances crept in, were 
allowed, and at times, even fostered, as useful obstacles in the 
progress of one's fellows, and things were done in the name of 
God and man that would have brought speedy ruin to the group, 
had it not been for the saving grace of that divinely human 
relationship of family and home. For imperfect and unlovely 
as this expression may appear, it is the factor in society that 
ultimately must connect the whole fabric into a harmonious 
and sympathetic oneness. The extension of the feeling of kin- 
ship and the realization of a closer civic and economic brother- 
hood, as well as a religious and social one, cannot but prove the 
actual interdependence of the community group. 

In fact, so interwoven are the conditions that affect every 
home, that the character of one permeates, often unintentionally, 
the very core and body of another, making or marring its 
environment, and affecting the vital nature of the substance 
from which it is formed. The spirit of one home comes in 
touch with the spirit of a neighboring home, and lo ! something 
happens, a new life is born, and the world is that much better 
or worse for the happening; thus a responsibility and a satis- 
faction is involved in all community contact, whether definitely 
determined or not, that should inspire a high order of activity 
in every undertaking, — the first, in that each act does so end- 
lessly affect the whole, and the second, in the power of the 
individual to so influence others — for after all, power is a fas- 
cinating possession when rightly used and we find a home moves 
through the same stages of progress in this, as does the child, 
who experiments ; first, using the space between Itself and what 
it would acquire ; second, trying to compass that distance by a 
directed movement towards the object; third, enjoying the suc- 
cess of arriving at what is desired, and fourth, the feeling of 
satisfaction In appropriating the thing unto Itself, for its own 
pleasure. This makes of the social home a somewhat selfish 
center, but It may as well be confessed that selfishness at this 
stage of development Is a universal showing of both the in- 

252 



THE HOME AND SOCIETY 

dividual and the family, as well as the larger group, and needs 
but to be enlightened into altruism. 

From a "society" standpoint the average home would enter- 
tain only those persons and connections who contribute to it a 
form of pleasure or profit. A small class are, however, awake 
to the fact of a higher degree of enjoyment to be found in the 
giving of one's self to those who need most a share in the atmos- 
phere of an order of home above this type, and just a few there 
are who delight in offering their best to the end that the general 
and even unknown public, may profit thereby — and yet the 
process is the same as with the lower and more selfish form of 
home, merely the degree of expression is different, and the 
plane of action higher, because more enlightened. Each goes 
through the same stages of desiring, of moving toward, of 
pleasure in the acquiring, and of satisfaction in the extension 
of self. This gives all homes the same fundamental character- 
istics and problems, for all are touched alike by the same environ- 
ment, even though differing in form and condition. It is what 
one does with a situation that is of importance, not so much 
how one is surrounded or affected by it. 

The social home, like the individual, must develop itself from 
within, as well as allow itself to be drawn into sympathetic 
action by the play of society. Each day should find it a bit 
ahead in the game of friendly relationship, and this, of course, 
is not easy, except there be a strong spirit of kinship and 
family co-operation, as well as an intelligent and united social 
effort, for the comfort and happiness of all. 

The real use of society is the chance it affords for the mul- 
tiplication of human emotions and their results. If a man is 
ambitious, he becomes more so when in contact with the ambition 
of other men, or if inclined to be intellectual, his powers become 
quickened in thoughtful debate or discussion with those of his 
kind ; pleasures are intensified by summing up the delights from 
all sides, and activity becomes more effective when varied in 
interest and contributed to by a number of motives. Society 
in this sense becomes one of the most potent factors in the 
development of a life, be it single or collective, and should be 
taken seriously, to the extent of keeping guard over its creative 

253 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

and constructive functions. It should be the interest of all 
to see to its spiritual caliber as well as its outward form, for its 
influence in good and evil is tremendous, growing from day to 
day, as each contribution may suggest ; hence how important a 
role the community has to play through the ever-developing 
social home, and its active society members. 

For the ever-developing home is the progressive home, the 
growing home that constitutes the finest social unit, — conscious 
not alone of its own existence, but of a self-direction in the 
unfolding of a life that is constantly increasing in power, appre- 
ciation, and breadth, operating on a plane that is moving ever 
and ever onward, creating from day to day, newer and happier 
standards ; not by drifting along in a social order that says 
guard well your own class ; keep within a select circle ; return 
your social obligations by formally entertaining those who have 
entertained you ; above all make an effort to climb into the set 
that will best gratify your sense of worldly possession ; but 
rather, by welcoming each experience and every individual into a 
place of understanding in the building of a social organism. This 
requires a consciousness of the law upon which all true society 
rests, the highest type of which is the organic and creative 
consciousness, the law being that every part of the universe is 
so intimately related, no portion can properly exist by itself. 
Discovery, however, puts things in new relationship, and this 
constant change, — we call progress, — is moving toward more and 
more harmonious and effective relation, for right relationship 
is the secret of all human power as well as mechanical. An 
engine that is properly related in all of its parts is a higher 
medium of force than a hunk of iron or steel, just as a man 
who has come into contact and sympathy with every order of 
man and knows his relationship with each, and his place among 
all, is a higher and happier human factor than the one who 
knows only the isolated kind of his own exclusive type. 

Fashion and customs have tried hard to establish a society 
of snobs, and a home of personal and selfish luxury, but the 
best in human nature is never content with such a standard. 
National fellowship spreads its wings and flies to the heart of 
its kind, and wealth and comfort become unhappy burdens un- 

254 



THE HOME AND SOCIETY 

less put to the active use of some splendid idea. The abuse of 
great forces foretells the use, and as society initiates the first, so 
the social unit declares the latter. 

In the small circle rests the hope of the future, for while the 
large body has greater capacity and variety, it is not so easily 
moved to new life, for the reason that it is hard to develop a 
high order of consciousness unless the reasons why and the right 
feeling be given close and concentrated attention and study, and 
such concerted action is more easily arrived at in the smaller 
group. People come closer together, understand each other 
better and sympathize more readily, thereby co-operating in 
time more effectively. 

The great social body is apt to make one feel his own limita- 
tions and insignificance and reduce one's sense of power — while 
the small group encourages growth, independence and impor- 
tance, and reveals the truth of the greatness of the individual, 
through the personal results in coming closely in touch with the 
few. 

One constructive, courageous, and idealistic member of society, 
can, if he chooses, so mould the lives and conditions about him 
as to affect not only the present age, but the life of the universe, 
in the ages to come. 

The home influence of course, should hold the balance between 

the too exaggerated sense of personal importance and the 

conventional order of society that would destructively swallow 

up all initiative, originality, and freedom of action, for either 

\c:xtreme brings social disaster. 

The obligation in every act would normally consider first, 
the welfare of the family and the individual members ; next, the 
community or the social groups ; then the public or the civic 
body, although frequently we find it imperative to think and 
act inversely as it were, and work from a public motive or a 
large general social point of view, in order that the individual 
member of society may best reap the benefit. The highest 
social standards — which of course all hope to approach — are 
those that include a consciousness of the whole universe in every 
act ; a rational connection with the past, an intimate feeling of 
the present, and a vision or perception of the future conse- 

255 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

quences. This might suggest a labored and over-serious atti- 
tude, were it not for the fact that of liimself man can do noth- 
ing, — he is but a mere puppet, — but with the right sense of the 
great creative force back of him, in him, about him, and through 
him, he becomes in truth a hving God, a fit medium for the 
expression of his own spirit, through coming in touch with the 
spirit of his Maker, thus his acts are free and spontaneous, for 
while he feels a sense of responsibility to be an ever-ready and 
active medium for the highest force, he throws all care of result 
from his imperfect order of management, into the larger order 
that is of creation and that permeates even into the midst of 
every trifling circumstance. 

An Efficient Society, whether large or small, in the home or 
out of the home, is one whose ideal is to understand and enjoy 
human nature wherever found ; because it expresses God in this 
world more nearly than any other form of life we know. It 
would interest itself in the greatest pleasure and wisest form of 
social contact and would study how best to appreciate the 
virtues of each and eliminate the vices of all. It would give 
everyone an opportunity, a chance to enter the inner and higher 
circle of greatness at all times, but would receive none who had 
not proved worthy through his or her own personal effort; 
neither blood, money, or influence would count. Only the merit 
system would prevail. Proper records would classify the people 
of a community, and every possible encouragement and help 
would be given those in the outer circle. Pleasures and enter- 
tainment would be constantly planned and carried out with the 
purpose of giving a fair chance to all. It would be the delight 
of the few to plan for the profit of the many, and the conditions 
and the carrying out of these plans would be as perfect as the 
whole society could determine. 

Thus would the home and society purify itself, and the efficient 
society members become the highest type of social unit, en- 
couraging a brotherhood with one's fellow-men through a hearty 
desire to understand and enjoy human nature and the fact of 
our relationship to each other being the most important thing 
in life. 



256 



CHAPTER III 



EDUCATION AND THE HOME 



"Real education starts with inspiration, leads to action, and ends 
in satisfaction of teacher and taught" 

"The household is the home of the man as well as of the child. 
We owe to man higher success than food and fire. We owe to 
man, man. If he is sick, is unable, is mean-spirited and odious, 
it is because there is so much of his nature that is unlawfully 
withholden from him" 

At first thought it may appear that the education of the child, 
along with many other of the requirements of the earlier family 
life, has passed out of the domain of the modern home altogether 
and into the public stock of social supplies. The community 
having assumed the responsibility, the parents are thus relieved 
of any serious need for effort, save among the few who may 
choose to maintain personal control for special purposes. This 
change is the result of the idea that all such work is better and 
more scientifically performed by school experts, skilled espe- 
cially in pedagogy and the study of child life, coupled with a 
more or less theoretical knowledge of what is most needed for 
the carrying out of the policies and principles of the collective 
national life. 

It is undeniable that great good has been accomplished by 
the separation of the school from the home. It has helped 
in broadening the point of view, giving a certain discipline to 
the mind in action, reducing the similar human elements and 
ability to a common denominator for more uniform action, and 
bringing about a closer democratic relationship between the 
people of the country, just as infinite benefit has come from 
detaching the various industries from the home, certain recrea- 
tions, and religious rites, thus making the church stand 
for the Christian training of the people. Yet this sort of 
divorce from the natural heart center, carries with it grave 
danger that can only be overcome through realizing the mean- 

257 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

ing and function of the true home and its place in society, and 
taking a more live and growing attitude toward the thing we 
call education. There are but few fundamental bed-rock facts 
— as it were — from which all conditions result. A creative 
Force, called God. Human existence, as the child of God. 
The earth the Mother, and natural law and order the teacher 
and guide of the soul. The origin of the family group is thus 
rooted in life itself. The seed is of the man ; the environment 
for its development, the responsibihty of woman; the growing 
product or result, the child and all it embodies. Together 
these three elements form a nucleus, or center, called the home. 
A live and complete cell in the great body of Existence, where 
everything that is brought into contact and assimilated, passes 
into the life forces that make up the soul and vitality of this 
organism, thus developing its form of usefulness. The danger, 
therefore, in taking away any of its native functions, is in mak- 
ing less fruitful, less healthy, less normal and therefore less 
active this genetic social cell, and substituting a kind of public 
machinery for the performance of what should be accomplished 
through the integrity of the family hearth. For unless the 
utmost care and interest is taken, the school becomes an insti- 
tution ; lifeless and soulless within itself, performing a routine 
of duties more or less in the spirit of drudgery, and grinding 
out mechanically a common and uniform mould of character 
with no particular understanding of itself in relation to the 
surrounding life. 

Education should develop the imagination to bear upon life, 
but the average student not only uses this faculty very little, but 
is totally unconscious of any native ability to create a life of 
his own, merely by the practical application of a trained imag- 
ination brought to bear upon the most mundane and common- 
place material at hand. 

An institution is by the nature of its formation an organiza- 
tion, and an organization can be at best but a tool, for it is 
designed by adding together parts, and operates through manip- 
ulation, as any other machine, and not by absorption, assimila- 
tion, and the creative sense of an organism. The difference 
being that found between a live, organic functioning body and 

258 



EDUCATION AND THE HOME 

a dead, inorganic, revolving machine. So that only in so far 
as organized institutions are constantly vitalized through the 
consciousness of their spiritual relationship to the whole of 
life, and their particular function therein, conformed to an ideal, 
and operated in a free and spontaneous method in producing 
the highest form of human expression compatible with the times, 
are they safe appliances in the hands of civilization. So much 
for institutions in general, and the church and school in par- 
ticular. 

Now, while the home may be called an institution in one sense, 
and while it needs above all things to be reorganized, the insti- 
tution is of God ; a natural grouping of the creative forces into 
the one live unit of society, and the organization needed is in 
the establishment of a workable ideal that will make it possible 
for this highest form of social cell to normally and efficiently 
perform its particular part in relation to the entire universe. 
For the home is the life cell of the world, and will endure so long 
as the earth itself revolves. 

Therefore, instead of its being simply "the woman's place," 
as it is called, it is the only form of atmosphere in which men, 
and children as well, can develop their best powers, and its 
entire perfection is the only orderly educational foundation and 
means of growth for any nation. 

The point to hold in mind then, is the danger in performing 
any operation that may reduce the home's inherent efficiency, 
or cut away one part — even in thought — that helps to make 
up the complete body. What then is to be done.'* For it is 
clearly evident that no one home can effectively include the 
needs of the whole universe any more than an individual can 
compass the myriad of subjects brought to his isolated attention. 
The answer is, not that the work of the man-designed institu- 
tion must come back to the home, but that the home, to save 
itself and them, must go forward and out, to regenerate the 
institution. These should become home-like in the right and 
big sense, encouraging the greatest freedom of action and ex- 
pression, through intelligent personal human understanding and 
sympathy, establishing a kind of discipline, the result of willing 
conformity to law, and giving to the other fellow the same 

259 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

opportunity one would have for one's self, and the creating 
of an atmosphere that will best bring into outer activity the 
complete being of the inner soul of the child. 

The word educational means to draw out, although the aver- 
age school strives to put in, leaving the home to make the useful 
application. Perhaps there is no situation where old and young 
alike may be so readily and normally drawn out into natural 
and original expression as at the family hearth, and the family 
table of the truly home-like home. And as to the hours just 
before sleep, they are actually impregnated with future possi- 
bilities for both mind and heart. The most fertile moments 
for mother influence in the whole calendar of time. 

Of course these particular features are unthinkable and un- 
practical in the midst of great public groupings of people, 
whether it be the children in school, the church, or state asso- 
ciations. The idea being that it is not so much the small circle, 
or the hearth and dinner table, as what these things stand for, 
and have stood for through the ages ; the common purpose and 
intimate understanding of each other in work and play ; the 
proper quality of food and nourishment needed for each group ; 
the restful confidence of the evening hour, — the result of kindly 
interest, good-will and inspiration coming to the surface and 
the very heart of the hearth — which gives warmth, confidence, 
a sense of protection, and the live spark of individual initiation, 
encouraged into action. Such a condition is neither visionary, 
nor impossible. On the contrary every institution in the coun- 
try is wishing for higher standards of results, with less cost 
and waste along the line of operation. And as we view it from 
the home standpoint there is no possible way of arriving at 
this desired end, except by extending the essence and interest 
of the home into practically every public undertaking. Start- 
ing with the State itself as the private home of each family ; the 
City as its threshold, and the house the immediate place from 
which and in which the home-consciousness and home-sense is 
brought into being, nourished, and developed. Here belong 
both the man and woman, and all they represent ; different in 
function, but the same in purpose ; different in ability, but the 
same in desire; different in method, but the same in object; dif- 

260 



EDUCATION AND THE HOME 

ferent in thought, but the same in progress ; different in feeling, 
but the same in life. Until these two work just as definitely 
together and are as much at home in the making and moulding 
of the City, the State, and the Nation, disorganization, disorder, 
and discontent will be rampant, ending in riot, disease, and war. 
The feminine element is needed in public administration ; tragic- 
ally and positively needed. Women should realize that they 
have not been relieved one iota by appropriating modern in- 
ventions, comforts, and materials ; they have but changed their 
plane of functioning. It is as necessary to know and have a 
part in the way of manufacturing the foods and supplies made 
out of the house, as it ever was to know how to cook the bread 
and meat in the house. It is as essential to watch and take 
part in the making and moving of the policies and methods of 
the school, as it ever was to teach the child at the knee. It is as 
important for the woman to create the atmosphere of the larger 
home, — the State — through direct management of its parts, as 
it is for her to preside over the results of the various depart- 
ments in the smaller home of the house. The demand has come. 
It is here. Everywhere we are suffering from an artificial and 
abnormal world built up with half its elements and only a part 
of its organs. Men are splendid! And the institutions are 
wonderful ! But men are only half the world, and institutions, 
in so far as they are institutions, are heartless, lifeless, soul- 
less tools, brought into being as Frankenstein was, with the 
same danger of falling and crushing to pieces all within their 
reach. Nitrogen alone is dangerous, but united with its natural 
elements, it supports life in the air. 

But let us not be deluded into the idea of thinking that women 
are the missing link between the now and the millennium. The 
missing link is not the women in themselves, but the higher 
appreciation of both men and women as to their co-operative 
possibilities in all relationship. Man must learn that environ- 
ment is as important as the divine seed of authority. Woman 
must further cultivate and apply the larger home-sense as it 
includes the universe, and rid herself of pettiness in action, small- 
ness of vision, and all dependent thought and feeling, and learn 
to administer her own home in the spirit of a domestic conqueror 

261 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

— through a more complete knowledge of its elements — not let- 
ting it harass or control her. She will then be prepared to be 
of real service in the better efficiency of the State home, and 
to express in herself the true religion and ideal of democracy, 
which we are only beginning to crudely interpret in this country, 
where we will soon find it necessary, it seems, not only to develop 
and preserve this form of government for our own safety, but in 
the light or darkness of what is now happening in Europe, 
America must be the example for the whole world, of successful 
republican administration and democratic realization, through a 
progressively practical idealism. The •women must come to the 
front and willingly shoulder their special responsibilities, in 
order that the men may not have to go to the front and subject 
themselves to inhuman tools for mutilization. Women are the 
creators of those soldiers' bodies. Are they not then justified 
in declaring that their sons shall not he thus wickedly exploited? 
—human victims in the hands of PERSONAL PRIVILEGE. 
Subjected to atrocious /ooZ-methods for the attempted righting 
of public wrongs. The conservatives tell us war is inevitable, 
but we know it is brought about by long time unright policies, 
and unnatural divisions ; therefore men promote it. Surely 
women are needed as watchful and active guardians of these 
permanent policies, for if everyone opposed to war is not active 
in such opposition, he or she becomes one of the causes and 
helps war to be. 

And let us not think ourselves secure, or one whit better than 
the world's scientific standard — Germany. The art model — 
France. Or the commercial and civilizing English center. For 
we are made of the same stuff, and subject to the same emotions. 
They are fighting for power, believing it will bring them free- 
dom. We are strugghng for freedom, hoping it will bring us 
power. Neither is right at the core. What we must all fight 
for, men and women together, and the children as well, is the 
Freedom that cares not for power, so long as it is true in itself: 
wealth and greatness being mere incidents by the way. It is 
certain that Freedom is the goal, but obedience is the method, 
for there is no Freedom that is not of God, and no way of 
arriving thereat, save through a practical schooling in human 

262 



EDUCATION AND THE HOME 

relationship, united by ideals for motives and co-operative effort 
as the means. The same love of God, and brotherhood of man, 
translated as freedom of the soul, and interested service for the 
like freedom of other souls. Power we know is no longer un- 
derstood as God-like. Love is the divine Creator, and love, to 
be real love, must be jree. 

We are becoming emancipated from the medieval form of 
obedience founded upon fear, and are beginning to appreciate 
an obedience founded upon love, but the transition is a delicate 
and confusing one. Children are being freed from the fear of 
parent, teacher, and priest, only to find themselves in a state of 
little reverence, respect, or deference for anything ; and parents, 
teachers and pastors are wondering what to do. Is it not our 
fault? Do we hold things in such reverence as to be living, 
modern examples to the new kind of youth? We must open up 
more avenues for expression. There is no such thing as nega- 
tive goodness, and the child with normal energy, who obeys 
the law because he knows its meaning, is safer than the one 
forced, or authorized into obedience. The trouble is, children 
are not made to understand the law and thus come into sym- 
pathy with its workings. Self-control, cause and effect, and 
personal relationship, can be taught even in the baby age, thus 
making these elements second nature to the boy and girl. All 
education is tending in this direction. For while we realize 
education should never stop at any age, the school is becoming 
more intensive in its form of cultivation, reaching back from 
the primary to the kindergarten, from the kindergarten to the 
nursery, from the nursery to the right conditions for the Child 
that is to he bom. 

Such honest effort, together with the training in how to do 
things, how to look upon things, and how to make the most of 
one's self, in the midst of what is now condemned as the common 
material of every-day life, — ^beautifying and dignifying one's 
surroundings in the process — is the kind of co-operation needed 
between the home and school. The State is the solution, as it 
has of its own initiative become the home of the people, taking 
over the greater part of the food, clothing and shelter condi- 
tions, educating the children, caring for the sick and infirm, 

263 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

providing the means of transportation, and helping to encourage 
more and more the means for greater culture. To have this 
plan of civilization succeed, it must become the great concern 
of every individual citizen. The seed has been planted for the 
larger and richer home. The environment must be created, and 
the hearth and table made ready for the coming of the longed- 
for child — Freedom — whose life can only be secure and true to 
itself where Love of God, of Man, and of Home prevail. 



264 



CHAPTER IV 



MUNICIPAL HOUSEKEEPING 



"There will never come a time rvhen the most direct means of pro- 
moting health, education and opportunity will not be through 
government" 

A civic conscience, commonly called public spirit, expressing 
itself in action rather than criticism, is a flower of such rare 
occurrence as to deserve special attention from home-makers, 
careful nurturing and greater appreciation. 

To feel one's City, or Cdmmunity, a definite part of one's self, 
to realize the power and effectiveness of united sentiments, 
standards and situations, and their reflex influence upon the 
individual, is the thing of prime importance in creating condi- 
tions for the individual's profit. Environment is a factor of 
such tremendous weight as to seem at first all-controlling, when 
viewed from the standpoint that the whole of nature seems to 
be occupied solely in trying to live and protect itself amidst 
conditions that exist contrary to its will. Yet these seeming 
obstacles about us are perhaps the wisest provision of Mother 
Nature, in that they are the ever-ready means for the develop- 
ment of a much-to-be-desired personality. The extension of 
self from a cramped and meager consciousness to a complete 
god-like and self-directed existence. 

But while there are always at hand innumerable opportunities 
for such development, nothing is effected unless they be actively 
grasped and made fertile by those who would wisely build into 
the future, through making the most of the present. It has 
been shown by psychologists that there are but six motives mov- 
ing the human soul to action — Health, Wealth, Sociability, 
Knowledge, Beauty and Rightness — and that every interest of 
man projects itself from these. If this be so, — and there seems 
little reason to doubt such an analysis — then the concern of the 
group is identical with the concern of each personal unit, for is 

265 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

not every man in search of health, wealth, sociability, knowledge, 
beauty and Tightness? And where shall the whole be found 
except in co-operative practice? He who arrives at a monopoly 
in any one of these fields, or who would live to himself at the 
expense of others, forfeits his claim by the action of that simple 
and authoritative law — "No man liveth unto himself alone." 
In such action he would starve and die, for the soul possesses 
only that which it gives. The psychological miser is more 
despicable than the money hoarder. 

While the average home endures but for a generation, its 
influence in the city is more definite and should be more potent 
than the most public spirited of any single individuals, for the 
reason that it comes in touch with the city from a larger number 
of sides, has a greater variety of purposes, is a more permanent 
factor and provides the best of schooling in effective co-oper- 
ative effort. Its motives are the same as the motive of the 
single soul ; neither do they differ in the least from the motives 
of the collective soul. Upon slight reflection we find the City, 
State and Nation all actuated by the same identical six ideas, 
differing only in form, degree and the method of arrival. The 
unit housekeeper in her effort to realize these desires, is uncon- 
sciously establishing standards of municipal living and of 
municipal housekeeping. Health, Wealth, Sociability, Knowl- 
edge, Beauty and Rightness are City aims, just as they are 
personal and home ambitions. The road of arriving varies 
with the character of the town. The degree in expression, of 
the ideals to be supported, and the manner of approach, as- 
sumes its form through the variety of individual temperament. 
In this last we find the greatest cause of discontent. It seems 
to be as hard for Cities to agree as to the right way of pro- 
cedure, as for families and individuals. So that the united 
effort should be : First ; to understand that as everybody is prac- 
tically after the same thing, the pressure and pull should be 
together : Second ; to determine what is possible of realization : 
and Third, to so educate ourselves as to know what truly is the 
best road to take to fulfill the purpose of the life of the City, 
for the City has a life and a soul just as surely as the life and 
soul is in the body of the home. And the individual home that 

266 



MUNICIPAL HOUSEKEEPING 

does not contribute to the vigor of the City by helping in the 
larger work, and joining in the public play, is insufficient in 
itself and a distinct obstacle in social development. 

The larger businesslike methods are needed for the operation 
of the modern progressive home just as the closer sense of co- 
operation, sympathy and responsibility of home effort is needed 
in municipal affairs. A right kind of emotion too, is as essential 
in public work as in any private undertaking. A Cause should 
be as absorbing as self-preservation, for in truth they are one 
and the same. An individual may declare he does this and that 
of himself, or he would do thus and so, if in power ; yet in reality 
City standards are the result of what he is right now, and what 
he and the people actually want and are willing to help to 
realize. 

Hospitals, Reform Schools, Jails and Alms Houses are de- 
sired, because it makes people uncomfortable to know of, and to 
see, suffering, and when this demand is supplied, a kind of 
philanthropic pride and callous inactivity settles down upon a 
town, until either scandalous abuses, or insufficient housing 
wakes the lethargic into new effort. 

The fact that all such institutions are disease spots in the 
body politic — frightful cancers that eat away the City's sub- 
stance and feed upon themselves, establishing a kind of conta- 
gion from which no member of society wholly escapes — does not 
seem to occur to the average citizen. In the efficient city these 
things will be reduced to a minimum, for they are a form of 
waste, in the worst sense of the term, human, unnecessary waste, 
opposing not only the six motives in progressive development, 
but the final goal in creative perfection. If we would study 
ourselves and our lives from the highest standpoints, harmony 
and health must rule the day. As the body is the result of 
one's own acts, so the City is no less the result of its own mak- 
ing. Sewers and Housing, Streets and Sanitation, the Markets, 
Recreations, Education and the entire environment, when ap- 
proached with a high ideal and an intelligent businesslike de- 
termination to produce and invest in each and all, for efficient 
human returns only, will be the means of wiping out such dis- 
ease and suffering as poverty, ignorance and crime, and thus 

267 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

the building for their refuge, — as the rays of the sun clean 
the poisoned atmosphere and brighten the lives of the people. 

But co-operation is the only road to take. This cannot be 
repeated too often. Co-operation in municipal affairs, co-oper- 
ation in home concerns, co-operation of home and city. Men 
and women, and even children, must learn to have a greater 
interest in, and a love for their City, by having a more direct 
part in its government, knowing all sides, and doing their best 
to bring about more perfect and healthy every-day living con- 
ditions. Aside from the pride of a City, and the desire of its 
people to have the best there is, and so be equal to any other 
town of its kind, the object in a "City Beautiful" is to arouse 
among its own inhabitants a greater love for, and interest in 
their home-town. An orderly, restful, good-looking, and at 
the same time live and active town, is more highly thought of 
by guests and natives alike, than a careless, unenterprising one. 
It is a pleasure to feel one is living in such an one, that one 
breathes its air, is a part of it and has helped to create it, and 
it is a joy to return to it on every occasion. 

City planning is perhaps more directly a business undertak- 
ing. The economic advantages are considered and the natural 
growth more readily guided by those who have it in charge, but 
from an efficiency standpoint, from the standard of development, 
ideals, and results, the element of beauty becomes a wise and 
progressive necessity, and one that should never be neglected 
in any serious city-plan interest. 

The Government that concerns itself with the true welfare 
of the City, takes account of all these phases of that one great 
purpose ; educating the people constantly to want what is best, 
while they decide what their standards of municipal achieve- 
ment and opportunity shall be. 



268 



CHAPTER V 

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONSUMER 

"The housekeeper is the great factor in determining the use of 
Agricultural products, and more important still, in her hands 
is the melfare of the family and the state" 

The increasing importance of the home-maker as consumer, 
carries with it so great a moral responsibility for the woman in 
her civic association, that it can only be adequately met through 
a collective effort to intelligently fulfill this function, in order 
that each may act effectively in furthering the prosperity of the 
community. She it is who spends 90 per cent, of all that is spent 
for food, shelter and clothing, and she is the last tribunal in 
determining just what these things shall be. Her interest as 
consumer covers the home and the farm, the town and the 
country, and is interwoven with the people and the conditions 
of each. In the days when she worked in the fields with her 
own hands, and helped to produce the material for the home, 
she combined in herself the three functions of producer, con- 
sumer and protector, but when in time she had to buy many, 
or all of the commodities used, she assumed a new role, that of 
purchasing agent and business manager, when instead of know- 
ing how to produce the raw material and the various forms it 
might take, she needs must become skilled in selection, in judg- 
ment, and in the value of the manufacturer's standards. 

Individually she has been untiring in her demand for variety, 
her search for novelty, and her abundant use of the many things 
offered, but there has come a time when she is weary of choosing 
for a fastidious family. She is confused with the complexities 
that have arisen, and is tired of giving herself and her money 
to so many things that are fruitless, but finds herself helpless 
in the grip of the manner and custom of her environment. 
What has been sowed singly is being reaped collectively. And 
the one who would have the things truly worth while, is power- 
less in lieu of the general demand. 

269 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

It has, however, become a simple matter to gather a few In- 
terested ones together, who are of the same mind, and effect 
a campaign that arrives at the thing desired, by sufficiently im- 
pressing the public mind. One of the leading and lasting bene- 
fits of the Woman's Club is the fact that she has learned from 
practical experience how to organize. The sense of organiza- 
tion acquired in the practice of pulling together in a subject 
of mutual interest, is worth all the failures involved. It has 
generated a feeling of power and ability to accomplish the big 
things impossible and unthinkable for the individual alone, even 
though in the final effort it is the individual that moves the 
mass. The study of standards in a community would be an 
appropriate and interesting club program, and when entered 
upon with a constructive and co-operative spirit, of enormous 
value to everyone. The organization of a Board of Buyers 
to help each other in the search for better material, as the Board 
of Trade are associated for better business, would help and at 
the same time assure quality. 

The work of the Housewife's League in trying to establish 
the sanitary conditions about the shop and marketplace, and 
particularly in establishing Public Markets, is an effort in the 
right direction, but more work is needed and a broader influence 
required. One that will reach from the knowledge and practice of 
agriculture as it touches the home and the State, the condition 
of the roads, and the methods of distribution, to the values 
found in the shop ; — the whole matter of consumption and 
efficiency in selection, — that will assure the lessening of waste, 
the guarantee of a hundred cents' worth for a dollar, and the 
increase of real substance. 

We know that the consumer, distributor, producer and Gov- 
ernment must come together in any permanent effort to reduce 
the cost of living. And that it involves everything from the 
present unjust system of monopoly and taxation to the luxurious 
habit of having one's boots buttoned by hired labor, and the 
demanding of fresh strawberries and cucumbers in January. 
Nevertheless it is the question of moment for every man and 
woman in the country, and the writer is not sure but that the 
women in the case hold the only key to the situation. It is said, 

270 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONSUMER 

and wisely, that if every woman in the country would put her- 
self in a melancholy black garb, during the time of war, refuse 
to bear children, or to speak even, peace would be declared 
within a week. So, if every woman refused to buy adulterated 
foods, or inferior materials, such goods would vanish from the 
market, just as the price of eggs and butter went down in New 
York City when The League refused to buy, even though but a 
small fraction of the housewives denied themselves these things. 
For though men provide the money, women in truth hold the 
purse-strings and decide as to expenditure. Therefore it may 
be that the women are the missing factor in the many ineffectual 
efforts of the Government to solve this question of the unneces- 
sary high cost of living. Each enterprise needs her active 
co-operation, and she perforce has no voice in the affairs which 
she most controls. 

Again, her responsibility is noted in the world of Art and 
Literature. 

In the nature of things these subjects are becoming more and 
more democratic in expression. Instead of selling books and 
pictures to the elect, the few who have through culture and 
education learned to appreciate art values, our artists and 
writers have to struggle often in a tragic way to sell their 
results to managers and editors, who instead of demanding 
Avhat should appeal to an educated public, have only in mind 
a large class of careless women who look to the name before they 
admire, and read only what is labelled with a signature, com- 
mercializing the creative faculty and the spirit of art to an 
extent that is death to true originality, talent and honest good 
work. And yet, the otherwise social woman does not realize 
the part she is playing in this wreck of young geniuses, who 
long to work for the best that is in them, but who are stabbed 
at the start by the character and kind of public demand for 
which our — in other ways — conscientious women are really to 
blame. 

Much organized attention is given to the poor and the sick, 
and splendid work has been accomplished for the uplift of many 
classes, but it seems as if the women of the land have been too 
slow in organizing in their capacity as consumers, to help the 

271 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

equally pathetic struggle that is constantly going on higher up, 
and for which she as a consumer is responsible, because she is 
the final cause. Her carelessness in food standards has in- 
directly made it possible for the United States Government to 
give the decision it did in the "Lexington Mill Case" and allow 
both ignorant and unscrupulous food manufacturers to dope 
their goods at will, — the standard of the amount of poison being 
optional, — punishable only by the producing of those who are 
proved to have died by the use. 

The housekeeper buys the goods for which these business- 
men fought, and they need her. If she knew enough not to 
do so, such stuff would not be produced, and all the energy 
and enormous cost of this four-year case and its accompanying 
evils, would have been saved. As it is, the public is far worse 
off than it was before this decision was given. 

The same truth holds in her ignorance of textiles, their 
strength and wearing quality, and the intelligence of her demand. 
Millions of pieces of cloth are manufactured with the sole idea of 
gambling with her taste and ignorance, and she of course pays 
the cost, or rather she does not pay the awful one of the 
waste of life and ambition. If she did, she would learn. 

Again, with the rented house. She who knows only surface 
effects, and the ordinary demands of fashion, sees no further 
than the outlines of the building, and because she does not see, 
many a builder is encouraged to erect the most worthless, dan- 
gerous structures, costing exaggerated amounts to run, and 
often falling apart from the use of poor, unfit material, or 
burning up perhaps because of the cheap and dangerous install- 
ment of gas, or wiring. Yet the rent is just as high as the 
house built for the knowing one: the effect upon society and 
the business world is disastrous in the extreme, and such com- 
mercial success encourages men to consider a business contem- 
porary who cheats and destroys, who kills his competitors and 
"gets away with the goods," a clever fellow. Such competition 
is villainous in the extreme and is made possible largely through 
lack of knowledge on the part of the consumer — The Woman. 

The answer is organization, study, knowledge, understanding, 
action and co-operation of all the parts of society that are in- 

272 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONSUMER 

volved, that through the united and intelligent demand of the 
consumer, business and government may be protected in honest 
efforts, and the economics and efficiency of each — through con- 
tact with the consumer — be put upon a basis that is less nerve- 
racking and more sympathetic, honest and healthy. 



273 



CHAPTER VI 



HEAT, LIGHT, AIR AND WATER 



"The Earth — the womb of the Universe. Light and Heat the 
parents of Life, generated in Air, sustained by Water" 

Strange as it may seem, the masculine element found in the 
rough, is a destroyer of life, while even the primitive feminine 
is found everywhere to conserve it to the best of her ability. 
This may be the result of man's spiritual foresight in an un- 
conscious vision of the future, which makes the spending of 
life seem as nothing, so long as he is moving on in the light of 
his present and worldly desires. Woman, on the other hand, 
carries the burden of giving birth to the race, and nursing its 
future existence. She would therefore guard this life waste, 
gently mould it into being, and see to its soul's perfection. 
And she best accomplishes her purpose when she wisely utilizes 
the natural and simple material at hand, through understanding 
the meaning, feeling the life purpose, and knowing how best 
to put it to use. Woman, of herself, would move ahead but 
little. All her time would be consumed in the one effort to 
complete the thing at hand, but when man leads the way, she 
follows with a devotion that is wont to scatter her very sub- 
stance. And civilization, on the one hand, is that much poorer, 
for her part in it is not altogether fulfilled. She must ever 
return and build up anew. On the other hand, civilization is 
enriched by the ushering in of new elements, new conditions, new 
equipment, that must eventually be the means of regenerating 
and uniting all sides of life into a perfectly organized Whole. 

In this progressive and ever-developing journey through 
Nature's garden, let us pause a moment and build a home to 
the Spirit of Life. Heat, light, air and water form this four- 
sided structure, while Heaven is its roof, and the Earth its 
foundation, and let us keep this picture ever in mind when we 
think of the houses built by man ; for the necessity of these 



HEAT, LIGHT, AIR AND WATER 

elements in quality and quantity is but crudely valued in the 
mind of a City. All are Nature's gifts, freely and wonderfully 
bestowed to lead man on to his best, and yet we shut out the 
light, cruelly tamper with the heat, ignorantly misuse the air, 
and willfully pollute the water, corrupting the earth and in- 
terpreting falsely the vision of Heaven. The object of a house 
is to protect the living, not to entrap for death, and it should 
be a private and public disgrace to every citizen of a community 
in which such death traps are found ; for the intelligent appro- 
priation of air, light, heat and water would make men more 
nearly men, than even reading, writing and arithmetic, and 
would establish the efficient life that in its larger feeling needs 
must have such equipment. Perhaps Mr. Chambless may be 
able to solve some of these city problems by the practical demon- 
stration of a real live Road town. Let us hope that he may be 
encouraged to do so. 

Sunlight, the great purifying and healing force in Nature, 
is indispensable to health and progress and should be encour- 
aged to enter freely — not always glaringly — into every comer 
where human beings dwell. In fact there can be no health, or 
lasting efficiency where this daylight is not allowed to penetrate. 
At the same time artificial light should be used sparingly and 
installed with the utmost caution, for its cost is not merely what 
is registered in the meter, but a goodly share of the amount 
given the doctor, the oculist, and druggist. The eye is the 
organ for the reception of light, but unless it be used intelli- 
gently and exercised rightly, it pays the real and mighty cost. 

Sometimes it seems odd that so little attention is given to 
the study of the correct use of this organ, when we consider 
the tragic condition in blindness and the vast number of people 
now on that road. Probably there has never been a time when 
so many glasses were needed, or when the eye was so misused, 
as the present. Whereas a few good habits formed in youth 
would do much to insure good sight in age. In the first place, 
we strain the nerves by looking at things intently, when we 
should merely allow them to look at us, as it were, by relaxing 
the muscles to the reflection. All staring is dangerous except 
for a momentary exercise. Then again the muscles need constant 

275 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

attention, and where one's occupation does not give sufficient 
movement to the right and left, as well as upward and down- 
ward, special daily exercises should be practiced by moving 
the pupil as far as possible in every direction, afterward making 
a circle first to the right and then to the left. Particularly 
helpful is the practice of looking upward, raising the eye as 
high as comfort allows and resting it there for some time. This 
is an exercise that everyone needs, for the reason that our 
present life is full of habits that allow the eye to droop down- 
ward, and unless the uplift muscles are encouraged, the whole 
eye becomes weak in proportion. The attitude of prayer has a 
useful meaning here. When people have learned to overcome 
eye trouble through exercise and the right use of the eye, and 
to look to its care from the beginning, by using it as a mirror 
instead of a tool, much will have been done to reduce the need 
for an ocuhst, and to insure the health of this organ in the 
child. 

Home-makers ought. In addition, to better Interpret the 
science of the action of light and what is truly to be desired 
in the lighting of a home, and arrive at effects that are not too 
strong, or too artificial in application, for there is great art 
required In the lighting of a house, both for beauty and for 
efficient eye service. 

So it is in the heating. It is as easy to grow accustomed to 
an overheated house as to one overllghted ; perhaps easier. 
And here again lies great danger, for a dry hot temperature 
that tears apart the framework and the furniture has the same 
disastrous effect upon the human structure. Probably no one 
improvement is more needed in the average home of to-day than 
to have the coal furnace, or steam plant, out of the cellar, and 
bring in the supply of heat from a public station, automatically 
adjusted to the right degree for health, by the use of a regulat- 
ing thermostat, and moistened to a normal percentage. Not 
only would this eliminate a large part of the dirt now endured, 
but it should add enormously to general human efficiency. For 
even the most perfect systems of heating are made unhealthy 
by the possibility of coal gas, and the difficulty and expense of 
control, so that when they are spoken of as comfortable and 

276 



HEAT, LIGHT, AIR AND WATER 

satisfactory in feeling, the lack of moisture and the danger in 
overheating are serious faults. 

These things pollute the air, just as does the smoke and 
dust nuisance. That the same air cannot be breathed over 
again by the human organism with impunity, and that windows 
should be kept open most of the time, is fairly well understood 
even by the uneducated, but the dangers lurking in the sub- 
stances that are allowed to be a part of the only element that 
is truly life-giving and regenerating, is sickening to even con- 
sider. We find all kinds of poisonous gases, chemical particles, 
and unpleasant odors which destroy the joy in life, cost the 
community fabulous sums, making the taking in of a right 
quality of breath almost an impossibility except in some isolated 
sections of the country. 

If it were fully realized that the highest and most direct life- 
giving substances are to be found in air that has not been con- 
taminated, surely more attention would be given to purifying 
the atmosphere in which we try to "live, breathe and have our 
being." Perfectly pure, fresh, stimulating air, smelled far up 
into the head, and allowed to pass freely into the entire body, 
is a natural and rational cure for almost all ills, and surely is a 
guarantee against the beginning of illness. A clean, clear, 
open nasal passage, the enjoyment of natural and delightful 
odors, the open relaxation of one nostril and then the other, 
and the sensation that the head is receiving all it can utilize, 
is a simple way to build up both brain and nervous system, so 
that the whole body be made stronger and more firm. 

The perfect man, or the 100 per cent, efficient one, will never 
appear until the right kind of air is provided for his welfare, and 
he learns how to breathe and best appropriate it. 

So far the subject of air has not been given the collective 
public attention that has been devoted to the subject of water. 
Perhaps because the bad effects are not as definite. A direct 
sickness, such as Typhoid Fever, may follow the drinking of 
bad water, as Ptomaine may result from poisoned food, but a 
completely diseased system, and a broken constitution is the 
forfeit paid for the continued use of bad air, making the one 
who breathes it and tries to do his best, handicapped indeed. 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Another problem before the housekeeper is that of the modern 
water supply. In the days of old, when the water was soft and 
the surface rain the standard of quality, home operations were 
more readily accomplished. The hard, so-called, "City-Water" 
that comes oftentimes through the rocks and wells that are 
hundreds of feet in depth, is not only difficult, but costly to 
handle in the cleansing of things. We wonder oftentimes 
whether it is as resisting and unassimilating in the part it should 
play in the purifying of the inner man. Is hard water good 
to drink? It is doubtful. And even though softening prop- 
erties may be added, are they not as unnatural as they seem 
to be in the laundering and washing of articles? However, let 
us make no decisions here, for lack of evidence, and speak only 
of the value of baths. For unless the skin be kept clean, even 
the best of air is of slight avail. The twenty and more miles 
of tiny open pores, exhaling more than two pounds of dead 
matter daily, and inhaling the spirit of life, must be ever 
ready to perform their function, freely and naturally, or the 
body becomes an inefficient machine. To this end, public baths, 
as well as private bath-rooms, are a salvation in modern life 
where people are brought together in an atmosphere too close 
for human comfort. Baths that make the skin respond with a 
healthy glow and activity, have become not only a personal 
luxury, but a public necessity and a wise and health-giving 
undertaking for every progressive municipality. 

If we could but impress ourselves with the importance of the 
right use of light, heat, air and water, and the growing possi- 
bilities attached to their interpretation, the form and manner of 
their use would not be so abused. 



278 



CHAPTER VII 

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE FLY AND THE MOSQUITO 

"Sanitation rests on the right estimate of the importance of little 

things" 

"The dangerous insects now known as the 'house fly' and the 
'house mosquito' should be renamed the 'typhoid fly' and 
the 'malarial mosquito.' Their breeding places would then 
be abolished" 

It is astonishing how many people accept conditions as in- 
evitable, simply because they have always existed. How skep- 
tical they are when it comes to receiving a new fact, and how 
ignorant oftentimes in their defense of the old, though experi- 
ence is forever teaching us this lesson. Interpreted in one 
way, such an attitude is sane protection against fraud, yet in 
another, it becomes little less than criminal in ejffect, by holding 
to present disorders through fear of playing the fool. But how 
often we find the fool the wisest of characters inasmuch as he 
practices with the wise habit of an ever open and receptive mind. 
It has taken us ages to realize the simple truth that uncleanness 
is one of the greatest of earthly menaces. The state of coming 
in too close contact with the cast-off substance of animal, vege- 
table and mineral life. 

Amidst the wonderful progress of Twentieth Century civili- 
zation how strange It is that after generations of the most pro- 
found study of nature, we find all over the country, even upon 
University Grounds, and the property of the richest and great- 
est of citizens, two common and deadly Insects allowed to breed 
by the billion, under the worst sort of conditions, and spread 
their death-dealing effect almost unchecked throughout the civil- 
ized world. Is this sane? Is It safe? Is it righteous? And Is 
ignorance sufficient excuse? If not, then with the present 
knowledge of what can be done to prevent such a pest, there 
should be a law adequate and enforced, and make It compulsory 

279 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

to "clean up" the premises, and if necessary allow no man to 
own what he cannot keep clean and safe, for his neighbor as well 
as himself. Inspectors should be on the alert and a notice be 
served upon all guilty tenants and owners, as well as a notice 
posted upon the property stating just what is there found to 
exist, and it should be made a disgrace to allow for a moment, 
conditions laden with danger to health. In the meantime the 
scattering of such information as will insure public recognition 
of just what the fly is known to do, and why the mosquito bite 
is to be avoided, should be the duty of all who understand, 
until the elimination of flies and mosquitoes is seen to be a 
hygienic necessity. 

The story of the life of each has been published so often there 
is no need of reciting it here, further than to remind the house- 
keeper — whether public or private — that the fly born and bred 
in egesta carries to our food the sickening substance that ends 
in a list of digestive disorders. From stomach complaint and 
"ptomaine poisoning" to intestinal disease and typhoid fever, 
and in fact there exists strong evidence that tuberculosis and 
smallpox are even carried by the same house fly, as well as 
many other less known and unnamed disorders ; and that the 
mosquito is responsible for that widespread contamination of 
the human blood commonly classed under the head of "Malaria" 
and extending from "just a little temperature" to a state that 
must mean death. A poison that in some cases seems to lurk 
forever in the system, ready to assert itself at any moment, and 
which reduces one's efficiency to a tremendous extent. 

The lessons from Panama, and from many parts of our own 
state where good work has been done, near and definite as they 
are, should teach us conclusively that not only is the health side 
of this subject worthy the attention of every intelligent citizen, 
but the economic, social and domestic factors involved are enor- 
mous. To redeem swamp land by simple ditching which is 
neither expensive nor difficult, the cost being actually no more 
than two cents a linear foot, the labor cheap, and the fact that 
when it is done, it is done once and for all — save the slight re- 
pair work that may be needed from time to time — is well worth 
the attention of the alert business mind. And think of the 

280 



EXTERMINATION OF THE FLY AND MOSQUITO 

comfort that would result to the country. Besides the very- 
tangible truth that people do not like to live in a community 
where they are made miserable ; as mosquitoes do often make it 
impossible to exist with any sense of pleasure. They swarm 
out in the most agreeable part of the Summer day, when one 
is trying to rest after hours of occupation, and so destroy the 
peace of the atmosphere as to be a torment to both soul and 
body. To know that the majority are raised within a stone's 
throw of one's abiding place, and only in stagnant water, should 
make the good housekeeper ashamed to the core, and start her 
on a tour of investigation to find from whence comes this curse 
of the fair Summer. And she will probably find the greater 
part of the swarm raised upon her own premises in everything 
and anything that holds water for ten days, or more. From the 
thimbleful left by accident in the bottom of a flower vase, to 
the ornamental fountain or pool in the garden. From the bend 
in the dented, or broken gutter on the roof, to the rain barrel 
or catch-basin, the cesspool, or the old well. Anywhere — the 
places are without number — that watery liquid is allowed to 
stand. 

While the Boards of Health have it in their power to take 
the whole subject in hand, they are helpless unless the public 
demand is backing them by the way. 

Looked at from a progressive standpoint, there probably 
is no crusade that would so effectively and thoroughly clean 
up an entire town, as one initiated against flies and mosquitoes. 
It must needs penetrate into every dark comer and alley, and 
every back yard and cellar. It would drain the old puddles 
and ponds, and remove the old bottles and cans. All the gar- 
bage and manure piles would be done away with, and the whole 
town would be taught how to keep itself clean by finding where 
the failures occurred. 

The fact that there is no necessity for the breeding of mos- 
quitoes in every civilized locality, is easy to understand and 
illustrate when the whole district is efficiently attacked, as it 
were, with a sanitary fine-tooth comb for this purpose. 

Their effect upon children and animals is cruel in the extreme 
for a sympathetic age to countenance. And outdoor life — 

281 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

which ought to be the healthiest and happiest part of country- 
living — in a vast number of places cannot be indulged in at all. 
Fortunately the Mosquito Commissions of New Jersey are 
gradually being instated. When twenty-one Counties become 
active this long-endured pest will soon be an evil of the past and 
the fly, the dirty fly, must follow, thereby proving our little 
State the most sanitary on the map. 

Any such unclean surroundings are a home menace; a pre- 
venter of the right sort of progress, with no excuse for being, 
save laziness and ignorance. Does it not behoove the house- 
keepers then, to do their part in the elimination of such domestic 
dangers, knowing the cost is slight and the returns abundant? 
Is not co-operation and education the way to keep a town 
clean, organized and in running order? For the carelessness 
of one is the undoing of the many. No town can be healthy 
where flies and mosquitoes are abundant. Neither can a com- 
munity progress unto the highest stage of beauty, or social 
importance, that is not clean in all its parts. 



282 



CHAPTER VIII 

A HOME MUNICIPAL LABORATORY 

"For it is true in housekeeping, as it is in business enterprises, that 
systematic study is needed to furnish the broad foundation upon 
which improvements in household operations should be based" 

The answer to almost every problem in life, we find at length 
to be education, but the question that arises is, what should be 
meant by this word? 

A teacher is truly educating when he encourages each pupil 
into individual independence, through establishing a self-con- 
tained and progressive attitude of mind, that of itself develops 
free and constructive thought and action. In other words, 
when he shows the child how to control and guide his own per- 
sonal ship, or ego, through the deep waters of life, and is 
not merely helping him to load a cargo unrelated to his future 
use or skill. 

The physician is performing his highest duty when he instructs 
his patient how to heal himself, and gives what information he 
can to further this end. 

The business man who is helping other people along, at the 
same time that he is helping himself, is preparing a greater 
market for his own operations than the one who grabs all he 
can, thinking only of himself. Just as the Society with a high 
sense of responsibility, develops itself in all parts, and the 
knowledge that is put into action and made to relate itself to 
all movement, enlarging thereby the personal power and evolv- 
ing better conditions, is the only real knowledge worth while. 

The value of beauty is in educating the feelings to a finer 
form of expression and thus inspiring each one to create, after 
his own best kind. The artist, therefore, who endeavors to 
make his pupils independent and original, training them only in 
principle, is doing his very most. Just so the priest, who in- 
stead of preaching and scolding, shows his followers how to live 

283 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

the God-like life, each in his own way, explains the action of 
spiritual and psychic law and teaches the need of religion in 
commonplace things — that the people may be happier and 
more whole in their every effort — is educating his flock in the 
truest sense of the term. 

And the City which includes all these things, would further 
its own interest and that of every inhabitant, if it would inter- 
pret its government in terms of education instead of in terms 
of law. If it would spend its time and strength in showing the 
citizens and not so much in declaring, and its money in instruct- 
ing them how to live, instead of trying to enforce civic cures. 
The home, as the student of the Government, and the Govern- 
ment as the natural educational civic center, — ever ready to help 
even the least of the citizens into a better form of himself — is, 
we believe the ideal solution of the much discussed problem — 
Education. Just as the Federal Government has through its 
Department of Agriculture, started a nation-wide work to teach 
the people useful and practical things, so we would have each 
city have a central station of its own, and where the people 
could not come to it, the results could go to the people. 

It is widely acknowledged that disease, poverty, and crime 
are the result of ignorance, and that evil generally — unless it 
be the natural happenings of the Seasons — is absorbed not by 
piety, but by righteousness, and furthermore it may yet be seen 
that even the periodical disturbances of the elements are largely 
due to man's continual stupidity. Certain it is that he can 
overcome much even here, by proper education and habit. 

But to return to the home and its particular and immediate 
needs in its progress for itself and for the City. 

The would-be efficient housekeeper is continually confronted 
with difficulties in the what, why, and how, of her domestic 
world. Her business of home-making is much the same as the 
business of city-making, and is no small work to attempt. She 
must be a teacher, an artist, a priest, a physician, a business- 
manager and a society leader, as well as a philosopher and a 
scientist. All these together, with her natural aptitude, make 
her the mother, the food carrier, and the inspiring factor of the 
race. 

284 



A HOME MUNICIPAL LABORATORY 

To efficiently perform such a set of functions, even in the 
simplest of ways, requires a source of supply, and where should 
she turn for this, if not to the government of her land? For it 
is well-nigh impossible for her to safely engineer her business 
unless she can guarantee the result, through knowledge of 
materials needed. The business of the town is to supply her 
with stuff; the quahty of which is often unknown. Her com- 
mercial faith has been so abused, she no longer has reason to 
believe in the declarations of any one producer, manufacturer, 
or dealer, whether written, spoken, or supposed. This of course 
is quite unwise, and makes for civic disorder, as she has no way 
of telling the true from the false, even though she knows much 
that is right still exists. 

There should, therefore, be established a testing place for 
foods, clothing and household equipment generally, that the 
honest, efficient business man be encouraged to higher stand- 
ards, and the dishonest fake kept from being a public menace. 
The would-be-honest dealer is unjustly handicapped, and often- 
times put to death commercially, through ignorance on the part 
of the consumer. This is neither her fault, nor his, but an 
unfortunate and diseased civic situation that only a govern- 
ment of all the people, for all the people, 6^/ all the people can 
overcome. 

Education should not stop at the High School, nor at the 
end of any particular course, but these splendid buildings should 
be ever open for the instructive use of all the citizens, all the 
time. A department of the City that consumes so large a part 
of the tax upon the people, should be equipped and ever ready 
for the use of all the community, including a sort of consulta- 
tion place for grown-ups in how to spend and how to live for 
health and purse protection, a room for political meetings, and 
a hall for pleasure gatherings. 

In establishing the Experiment Station, our ideal was to 
help in the standardizing of foods, household appliances and 
furnishings ; to suggest a system of home operation, and a 
method of progressive management, in order to face the diffi- 
culties in the way of the present housekeeper, who is trying to 
meet modern demands with a proper balance between work and 

285 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

rest, so as to prevent fatigue and depletion. This meant at- 
tacking the subject from many sides, for there is no one easy 
and simple solution. Our plan was to instruct — in so far as 
we were able — the home-maker in the what, why and how of 
her profession, through relating her work in the public mind 
with the larger idea of government, to the end that she might 
carry out her feminine and patriotic mission, by turning the 
public attention to her need of more accurate civic knowledge. 
We gathered together much information and used it in testing, 
experimenting, telling and showing as our ways and means 
would allow. Whenever we found anything up to standard 
and worthy of close consideration, we frankly published its 
maker and the name and address of the dealer, believing that 
the return for one's money is more desirable than any consider- 
ation of personal suspicion. Our success with the hmited means 
available, was so far-reaching that we conclude from this prac- 
tical experience something like the Experiment Station on a 
larger scale, should be a part of every municipality, conducted 
with as little red tape as possible, and furnishing as much 
reliable information as may be attained through an organized 
chain of such Bureaus. Each City should appoint women — 
of course — to have part in the upkeep, and perhaps control 
such a laboratory, but men should design and conduct it and 
make it an educational function of Government, of use to all the 
people. 



286 



CHAPTER IX 



MORAL STANDARDS 



"Our antagonistic social system is the cause of immorality" 

In setting up a system of "thou shalt nots," Civilization has 
been the cause of misleading the mind from where it should 
focus, and concentrating it upon what it ought not to entertain. 
To be sure the Bible gives most complete and careful instruc- 
tions as to how one should act upon all occasions, but the com- 
mandments, together with the lessons of vengeance, jealousy and 
wrath, the vision of a personal God casting down fire and fury 
upon all who do not "Bow down to Him and worship Him," are 
interpretations that have led the world of Christendom astray 
and influenced men to do and be what they conceived was like 
unto this supremely powerful Being, for how could they think, 
or dream, to become more holy than their Maker? 

Again, the interpretation of morality in the light of sexuality 
and social custom, has added to the bewilderment of the mind, 
and put a serious pressure upon the normal action of creative 
independence. Because a certain method is right in one age 
and one place, is no guarantee that it will always be right. Any 
more than to suppose the thing beautiful at one time will, under 
all conditions be beautiful. It is a matter of understanding 
and of growth ; of development and of motive. 

On the other hand, spiritual law, like physical law, is ever 
operating in the same way, under the same necessity and through 
the same principles. Our business as moral beings, then, is to 
understand this law and apply these principles. Not to estab- 
lish rules and creeds as arbitrary enforcements, that make even 
the child who is told to obey, conscious of the inconsistency 
and unreasonableness of the command. "Never tell a lie," says 
the mother, and in the next breath : "Tell Mrs. Smith I am not 
at home." "You must not hit your brother," says the father, 
and turning to his wife he replies : "I'll knock that man down 

287 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

if he crosses my path again." The child mind is confused, 
and he wishes he were grown up and could do as he pleases, 
like his parents. The basis of the method is at fault, and an 
immoral, or unmoral environment results, producing for society 
too large a percentage of both the willfully evil, and what 
might be called the negatively good, and far too small a class 
who act from independent conviction and appreciation of the 
real social law. 

The beginning of civilization, whether in the child or the race, 
is when there has been developed sufficient ability to evolve 
from the experience of the past a mode of action effective for the 
present. The baby that burns itself a few times, knows that it 
should keep away from fire. And the race that suffers in 
bondage knows that man's authority is not the highest. 

Ideals are the summing up of the experience of the past, 
formulating it into law, and testing these values in the present, 
for the future. If this age fails to sum up and put into right 
relationship the ideals for this age, the next age will have to do 
the work that should have been done in this, thereby neither 
making the most of its allotted talent. 

Commandments and creeds, domination and negative good- 
ness, may make for immediate control, or perhaps contentment, 
and an easier system of management, but they do not — in the 
experience of the past — give either permanent happiness, a 
developing productiveness, or a progressive people, but rather 
a dead age of discontent, and suppression. 

The oyster moves, lifts itself up, and knows certain things 
are tasteful and distasteful, just as the animal spends its time 
in seeking pleasure and avoiding pain ; but to be human, means 
a consciousness of self-direction, the making or creating from 
such experience something worth-while, according to one's talent 
and knowledge, for Creation is discovery. The putting of 
things in new relationship, and the constant change in rela- 
tionship we term progress. The secret of all human pleasure 
and power is in working towards more and more harmonious 
relationship ; keeping alive the spirit of youth, by creating fresh 
ideals and thus moulding the life of this and of future genera- 
tions. 

288 



MORAL STANDARDS 

Within such a consciousness of growth and responsibiHty, we 
would evolve a system of morals more fitted to what is called 
Freedom, or liberty of action, for as man is free to do, or not to 
do, within a given limit, he will grow, or not grow, in proportion 
to his use of this responsibility. Two factors enter here, that 
we must join together at the offset. Masculine intelligence and 
feminine sympathy. While both are capable of including the 
whole, neither can properly produce by itself. Intelligence 
gives us knowledge of co-operative strength, but sympathy co- 
ordinates the members. Intelligence has proved "No man 
liveth unto himself alone," and that each is his brother's keeper. 
Sympathy shows him how to live with others, and the way to 
keep his brother, and so a spiritual law is deduced that reads 
onward and upward, not alone, but in mass, for only that which 
is given in the right spirit can profit a man. This we know 
must be applied, and perhaps a new theory, or vision of selfish- 
ness will result, for it is well understood that all moral action 
rests really upon the thought and feeling of self. To acquire 
in order to give, is vastly different from giving in order to 
acquire. Each involves self to a dangerous degree ; therefore, 
we would as nearly as possible eliminate self, for self's sake, and 
live for Ideals, contributing our substance to the building and 
use of these, and to the Cause in which one chooses to enlist. 
For while every man has a talent, and a purpose all his own, his 
realization of it depends upon his devotion not to himself, but to 
the latent ability within him; his power to overcome, and his 
willingness to die, if need be, that good may live. Moral stand- 
ards thus become an individual decision, not simply a custom as 
is so often the case. The motive makes the act, and the act 
explains the status. Education for intelligent motive is there- 
fore the answer, and righteousness the key to achievement. Co- 
operation is the system. Co-ordination the way. Thus public 
and private morals are a matter of each one's own conviction 
prompted by a controlled, but sympathetic emotion, and not by 
habit, convention, or tradition ; a personal, progressive and 
ideal attitude toward every situation ; the moving on of self In 
higher and better relationship. 

Applying this to the home, we find it has a practical outcome. 

289 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Everyone through sympathetic understanding, helps everyone 
else to reahze a common interest, that all may profit thereby. 

The policy adopted at the Experiment Station was that of 
helping each to want to do his part in the common economic 
endeavor. It was considered immoral to leave a room, for in- 
stance, any the worse for having entered it, or to act in a 
way to interfere with the progress of another. Law, as the 
basis of freedom, gives a chance for all human expression, — 
psychic and social law. Construction is ever the moral aim. 
Destruction is immoral, except for the express purpose of bet- 
terment. A high motive, a mutual understanding, and an active 
and co-operative desire to realize it, is the moral flag of right- 
eousness, around which the family can "rally," carried to the 
extent of endeavoring to leave each as well off, or better, for 
coming together. The what, why, and how of every question 
interpreted in terms of a living, constructive morality, prove 
again the Efficiency System, a practical working method of 
realizing even personal goodness. For one is soon convinced 
that to work to produce an ideal, through independent and 
original action, is the most direct road to happiness. House- 
work is one of the ways of making such action possible, and 
giving in return just enough discipline to be worth the effort. 
The home is the practice ground for happiness and more efficient 
living, and there is nothing required in the modern house that 
should not add to this standard. Hospitality and sociability 
even have their moral form of expression. Why should a 
hostess provide what she knows is not good for her guests, even 
though their appetite and habit may demand the thing in ques- 
tion.? Again, in the social world there seems to be little or no 
conscience about how one's time or state of mind shall be inter- 
fered with. Confusion and waste run rampant here and still 
no one seems to question the moral significance. Perhaps an 
average of one-third of a life is frittered away by others, with 
no sense of value, or Tightness. Stilted and unprofitable meet- 
ings that help to make of us social victims. Children in this 
way are wiser than grown-ups. They frankly express their 
wishes, and go and come as they choose. "I don't like your 
game. I want to go home," is a frequent childish excuse for 

290 



MORAL STANDARDS 

breaking away from another. With just a little direction, 
they could be made to understand the morals of such action, 
and they are far more just than their elders, in that they sus- 
pend rather than pass judgment too quickly upon another. 

It is said from an experienced standpoint that it is impossible 
to rightly judge, because the facts are never all in. Whether 
children sense this truth, we cannot tell, but certain it is they 
seem to take more real pleasure in moral action than their 
parents, and are frequently more consistent. Moral education 
and moral practice have always been centered in the home, with 
a certain help from the church, but the church no longer holds 
its former authority, and the home has too often gone adrift in 
its mission. Let us not be disturbed by this, however, but turn 
our thought to the community and the Nation, encouraging 
individual moral action in terms of universal fellowship through 
the method of a modern practical philosophy. For the "Square 
Deal" of Efficiency is to "live and let live in the doing," and the 
true human spirit of building one's life is abroad and active in 
the land. 

To purposely live to enjoy the fruits of other people's labor, 
is surely a moral sin. The human parasite and the snob are 
despicable members of society. To feed upon another and give 
nothing in return is truly a beastly state of being, where neither 
intelligence nor sympathy have any place other than low-form 
instinct. 

Again, is it not immoral to deliberately waste one's time, 
talent, or substance? Should these not all be accounted for in 
the Great Book that promises freedom? Where obedience, and 
discipline are a matter of law, and not a matter of forcement. 

The moral life and the moral law, we know are essential 
factors, and moral practice has been the salvation of men 
throughout all the ages. The danger is with the passive ac- 
ceptance of a stupid and dead system of morality that tries to 
dictate just what one shall do, and when he shall do it; by an 
ancient rule of thumb and a vision as wide as a string, instead 
of helping each member of society to stand on his own feet, think 
with his own head, and act by virtue of knowing the law that 
guides in control of emotion. 

291 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

The driving force should be simply a richer Life, and a higher 
Life. As human beings there is little or no difference between 
us. The distinguishing characteristics are partial. We are 
outraged at a manner or a form, when if we would give our 
entire and sympathetic attention, the life back of these uncouth 
gestures, would be singularly warmed into a new and better 
kind of expression. How moral it would be to cultivate a habit 
of bestowing one's undivided attention upon each member of 
society one meets, giving one's best, even if it be but a fraction 
of a moment. For the thoughts one has of another, play upon 
each, subtly producing after their kind. The mood in which 
are performed our most trivial acts is the moulder of the char- 
acter of self and all one touches. 

Thus the community forces may be made constructive, de- 
veloping in happiness for each, or destructive, ending in 
calamity, depending upon the contribution of the individual to 
the general or larger moral atmosphere. 



292 



CHAPTER X 



LOVE AND HOME 



"Love is the life of man" 

There are those who would reduce the entire Efficiency Sys- 
tem and all of its principles, into the one quality called Com- 
mon-Sense. If you have this, you have it, say they; if you 
haven't, you haven't, and that's all there is about it. Just as 
there are those who say the whole subject of the home and 
the family, the children and society, is a matter of simple Love. 
If love is present, all is well. If there be little, or no love, the 
situation is hopeless. 

There is of course truth in these statements, for in the last 
analysis all success depends upon the individual passion that is 
back of every effort, and the simple quality of knowing how. 
These, however, are no more to be considered mere gifts from 
Heaven showered only upon the elect and withheld from the 
multitude, than that Heaven itself is designed for the few who 
are labeled at birth, and Hell for the others. Some kind of a 
personal effort must be made in order to arrive at any state 
of well-being, and the higher the state, the more difficult the 
road. While it is easy to agree with those who say these great 
virtues are the simple essential conditions, it is incomprehensible 
to think they cannot be arrived at through a right kind of 
education and discipline. 

What is common-sense, except the faculty of being able to 
assemble all the known sides of a given subject and act in ac- 
cordance with one's innate estimate of what is practical ? While 
the tendency for self-preservation is strong and often expresses 
itself in quick decisions that seem to result from little or no 
preparation, no man can tell what has been the connection be- 
tween another and his environment ; his observation, attention, 
comparative quality, and memory may have been exercised 
abundantly throughout his entire life, encouraging a "common- 

2^3 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

sense" of high order. On the other hand, he may have had 
little or no opportunity for practice, and so his common-sense 
proves of a common order indeed. The human quality of sum- 
ming up all the known facts and using the result in reasonable 
and effective action, is surely as capable of direct education 
through systematic training as any other power of human ex- 
pression ; and does not progress itself depend upon how this 
training is brought about? The kind of system that shall 
provide the facts.'* And the manner of their interpretation? 

So with love. We find people who are constituted in such 
a way as to make them lovable, through a kind of sympathetic 
understanding, and this becomes their strongest factor in suc- 
cess. But that does not deny that love in others cannot be 
elevated, developed, purified, and made more productive through 
constant effort in the systematic training of emotion and appre- 
ciation. The latter meaning that power of conscious direction 
of one's will toward those things that are worthy and lovely. 
Appreciation grows with contact, and here is the great value in 
environment, but as Nature adapts her creatures to their sur- 
roundings through a gradual process of relationship, so we 
believe lasting good results from a progressive process in the 
betterment of things as they are, and not in sudden and artificial 
leaps that tend to educate beyond one's power of "common- 
sense" adaptability. To cultivate from the outside only, or to 
*'refine" at the expense of substance, is a dangerous application 
of the better environment method. Yet in everyone there lurks 
a power of appreciation and a love for something. It may be 
anything from candy to religion, but a passion for the thing 
that one understands, or desires, is to be found in greater, or 
lesser degree in each human soul. To increase the kind of 
appreciation that exists, and guide into a higher form of 
expression this individual passion, is the purpose of a systematic 
love-training, which, unless it be centered in personal interest, will 
not properly accomplish its object. Everyone knows how much 
easier it is to apply one's self to the thing in which one is inter- 
ested, and how extremely difficult it is to. force the attention 
where there is no appreciation. History and experience teem with 
proofs of the enormous capacity of men and women under 

294 



LOVE AND HOME 

the passion of love. Family love, love of each other, love of 
home, of friend, of humanity, of occupation, of one's self, of 
possessions, of Nature, and of God, has, we know, been the real 
motive power of the world, and while back of it is that great 
reality, — the passion for the expression of self — it must come 
through knowledge of and disinterested love of self and the 
activity of one's soul in a progressive devotion to the thing 
liked best. 

There will come a day when, if the individual cannot decide 
for himself the vocation for which he is most ably fitted, we 
believe the State will help in placing him where the result will 
be efficiency. For each can do something worth while and 
constructive, if he could in the beginning but unite his passion 
with his ability. 

It is surprising how many people there are who seem to 
want most to do the thing for which they are apparently 
unadapted. Keener pleasure seems to be found in accomplish- 
ing those things that are somewhat difficult for one. At the 
same time, these very people are capable of an individual point 
of view of use in all endeavor, and equipped with some com- 
mon class-tendency. For instance: the one who has an artistic 
bent, and yet chooses a commercial routine, is apt to make a 
greater success, if he impresses his business with this art- 
tendency. So the one who would love to teach, and finds it 
necessary to lay bricks instead, may search for facts by the way 
and Instruct his fellow-workmen in such art. For, as everything 
is In each thing, and each In everything. It becomes possible to 
love the thing you must do, by Including within It the thing you 
would love to do. Genius itself is but the capacity for applica- 
tion, and the faculty of never forgetting a truth. But some one 
will say : how can you love that which is distinctly disagreeable ? 
The writer knows no better way than to accept It, if need be, 
incorporate It into one's life, and devote one's self to under- 
standing It, with a vision ever fixed on the thing you would have. 
When the discipline of the unpleasant has been acquired. It 
passes on and leaves one, just as the mischievous child no longer 
teases his young brother when the latter refuses to be troubled. 
As with vocation, so with one's companions. Through the 

295 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

development of insight and understanding, almost anyone be- 
comes interesting, and appreciation and devotion result, or, the 
companion passes out of one's hfe, and others take the place; 
so also do the loved ones, but it is far "better to have loved 
and lost, than never to have loved at all." It is the love that 
has been created that counts, even when it makes one suffer ; not 
the condition. 

Again, in the family it is the form of love that is developed, 
that really makes the home. No equipment and no system, no 
talent and no amount of wealth, are worth having, where there 
is no devotion to the home itself, and the atmosphere it breathes. 
Understanding and insight are the same keys found to unlock 
the door here, as elsewhere. If we would have a child speak 
correctly, we place him at an early age where the language and 
diction are faultless, and at the same time instruct him in the 
form and manner to be acquired. So with Art ; the environment 
as well as the child should be attended to, and the child be 
trained through seeing good things about him, being instructed 
as to what makes them good, and developing his own opinion 
through his own impressions. Watching another work, study- 
ing the principles and applying them in one's own effort, gives 
better understanding and arouses a greater interest than merely 
a distant contact through rules alone, which is a purely in- 
tellectual knowledge. 

Housework, we know, becomes much more fascinating when 
interpreted in terms of one's temperament and entered into 
with love in the doing. The one who is able to draw upon Self 
to make the imperfect environment more perfect, who loves to 
devise ways and means of conquering the situation, is develop- 
ing a love that can be increased and guided by one's own con- 
sciousness, through applying one's self properly and keeping in 
mind a clear vision of the end desired, no matter what the way 
includes. The incentive for devotion is always self-expression. 
Perhaps in no phase of life do we see this so plainly as in 
devotion to a Cause, or Ideal. When people are willing to die, 
if necessary, in order to express their feeling toward a subject, 
Love has indeed ruled the day, and they have found themselves 
in spirit, if not in truth. Love moods may be made most use- 

296 



LOVE AND HOME 

ful when spent in enthusiastic effort, — for a mood is but a state 
of feeling. Every mother experiences this kind of emotion 
instinctively and naturally in her willingness to give herself 
for her child. The effort now should be to carry this mother- 
feeling out into the world, encouraging love of principle, love 
of neighbors, and love of humanity, through understanding 
that the only real expression of the better self includes all 
these. Devoting one's self passionately and systematically to 
those subjects that bespeak a finer order of mutual intelligence 
and understanding must ultimately broaden and deepen the 
love nature. 

"The benefits of affection are immense; and the one event 
which never loses its romance is the encounter with superior 
persons on terms allowing the happiest intercourse." 

There is no pleasanter happening in the home than the 
gathering of interesting people into the family circle. And 
when all is said and done, it is not so much the distinguished 
host who draws, as the quality and kind of love abiding in the 
house. It is what the home loves best that has the profoundest 
interest for outsiders, bringing them into sympathetic touch 
with each member of the family through mutual sentiment and 
mutual affection. For a man is not one thing and his love 
another. His love is himself. That we allow our love to be 
one thing and our activities another, is a calamity for home 
and society. We need less sentimental expression for our feel- 
ings, but more, infinitely more, real sentiment. A love motive 
that becomes a passion will do more in unifying our efforts than 
a whole college course of training. 

Love certainly "makes the world go round." Therefore, so 
great a force in all endeavor should have our every attention 
and best encouragement in the home. To the end that all 
natural affections, whatever they may be, shall broaden in scope 
until they include not only people and things, but law, order, 
and human nature as a whole. From little beginnings, great 
loves come and grow. 



297 



CHAPTER XI 

HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY 

"Democracy, from the standpoint of the Universe, is the inherent 
tendency of the Universe to give to every individual the op- 
portunity for self-expression" 

"Ability to recognize and act up to this lam (of equal freedom) is 
the final endowment of humanity — an endowment now in 
process of evolution" 

Probably no one has ever passed through this life without 
asking the question: "Why was I born?" And yet how little 
help is offered that is directly useful in solving this question. 
Even though upon each one's theory of the what, why and 
how of his life, rests the net result of his being. Up to very 
lately those who would try to help the individual to find himself 
through any method of reading his inner forces and tendencies, 
were condemned as witches, or liars. And yet is there more 
guess-work about the honest psychic, who through natural gift, 
study and experience, tries to aid one along on his path, than 
is found with the doctor, for instance, who thinks possibly this 
the right medicine to give and so convincingly tries it; or the 
scientist who believing he has discovered a law, formulates it 
for the use of the people? Is not the same suspension of judg- 
ment necessary here as elsewhere .f* For the facts are not all 
in. The idea that some men can read for others, is no more to 
be condemned than that some can think, or see, for others. It is 
not the character reader that society should condemn, but our 
ignorance in not knowing enough to co-operate with this class 
of workers ; and not be led adrift by them. The constant effort 
in trying to fit "round pegs in square holes," is wasteful, child- 
ish, and stupid, when we realize that variety in form is one of 
Nature's first lessons, for not only have there never been two 
individuals alike, but the animals, insects, and stones all differ 
in expression and design, and yet fundamentally all are made 
from the same substance, live in the same atmosphere, act in 

298 



HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY 

accordance with their species, and die to be born again, in still 
different form. 

In reviewing the history of the past, and the various powers 
of comparison, we find that a special tendency exists in the soul 
of each. A tendency to express both one's kind, and one's 
particular being. Each man has instincts and talents to be 
matured in the light of reason, and his highest obligation to 
himself and his fellows is to become as great as he inclusively 
can become. But how few there are who really know what 
form their own lives should take, and while there is no obligation 
to rely upon any decision save one's own inner sense, how help- 
ful it would be if psychological readings, and vocational schools 
were in some way made available to all, as guideposts in the road ; 
to learn the what, why, and how of one's work, and the what, 
why, and how of one's self; to clearly discern the relationship 
between one's self and one's home, one's community and one's 
country ; to sense the closest of contacts between one's life and 
one's environment, even to controlling and possessing it. To 
have a conviction of God and His place in every condition, 
would be to bring Heaven on Earth in one great HUMAN 
Creation. 

And although in all the Nations there Is found no sign, or 
argument against, but rather all things in favor of man know- 
ing himself and his work, loving his home, his country, and 
making an effort to realize the millennium as rapidly as possible, 
there is little in the educational standard of any system [save the 
"Efficiency"] that is effectively planned to this end. Thus the 
lack of self-knowledge contributes to our common enemy — - 
social ignorance — which in turn stalks proudly over the Earth, 
breathing a spirit of commercialism, egotism, intemperance, and 
feudalism, that breeds the acts of war, bigotry, and hypocritical 
living, resulting in a state of repression and misery, that begins 
with the family and extends to the public, doing its fatal work 
by kindling the minds in the cradle. The force of the answer 
that "You cannot change humanity," is as weak as is its effort 
to be conclusive. The changing has never been tried from the 
standpoint of all following the same "Ideal," or of assembling 
in unity the various factors required. Life's experience has 

299 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

proved that there is no particular "ism" that can be used in the 
issue, but when and where has it ever been tried to federate all 
of life's values? Man will not be driven, neither will he be con- 
fined to less than he feels within him ; but he is always ready to 
do his part in efforts that to him are important, and will work 
with an enthusiasm that is almost super-man-like when things 
appeal to his heart and his reason, and can be done with the 
sense of his own creative spirit. Under such a motive he be- 
comes able, and ability rules the universe. 

His education must, however, begin with himself, and have its 
first practice in the home. But this field will not be sufficient, 
unless he realizes his many-sided make-up, and interprets his 
personal home as a miniature universe, for about himself and 
his early habits lurk the seed of his future success. 

The new democracy that is slowly but certainly establishing 
itself in this country — gradually being understood as a form 
of active and practical religion — is, we believe, the international 
school of suggestion that in time must unite the nations of the 
world. Without any patriotic egotism, it seems to be clear that 
our American mission is great, and we must assume it with 
faith and intelligence. In the United States, where all sorts 
of people are assembled, should begin the spirit of progress 
that ultimately must reach from each soul to the One Great Soul. 

In the past we have believed that the highest of wisdom 
and knowledge was not safe in the hands of the mob, or useful 
to give to one's unthinking neighbor, but now no infinite knowl- 
edge is too fine for the least of our fellows. The Mother of 
democracy would share alike with all of her offspring, and use 
every possible effort to obtain more for the next feeding. The 
best of her faculties go up into the mountain to gather the 
fruits of Creation, returning and serving them in such novel 
way as to be tempting to even the weakest. And so all are 
made to share and share alike in the results of the experiences of 
others, and while every man has not the same chance because 
of himself and his make-up, each is given the same opportunity, 
and the same material, with which to develop his particular 
ability. And so the door is open to all, even though all may 
not enter, and Democracy realizes she can do anything so long 

SOO 



HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY 

as her children stand by her and learn how to organize and 
co-operate for a common end, but the secret of democratic 
success lies in the motive and method of working. All of its 
parts must be brought together as a live enterprise, and not as 
an institution. The first, meaning a living conviction ; the 
second, a mechanical operation. The first has emotion and 
interest ; the second a duty to further ; and all the difference in 
the world is to be found in the result. When a thing is to be 
done, the main point is to interest those who will do it, and this 
interest is best put into action by making the person a part of 
the outcome. 

Men are prone to give their best attention to the exterior of 
things. Women, to the interior. But as both attitudes are 
essential to complete and perfect growth, all action should be 
developed both from the inside out, and from the outside in, 
which means that there should be constant practice in the activity 
of that which constitutes the entire person ; one's self, — or one's 
personality, — through one's own created environment. 

As an illustration ; the family organism together in the home, 
is a living committee, all enthused to the same cause and purpose, 
while the town council is generally proven to be an institution, 
no part of which is in intelligent sympathy with the other parts. 
One is a live body ; the other a machine organization. 

Housework is approached by the mothers, and the mothers 
here are all the women, with all the men as their partners. That 
the home may be the gainer, the women must love their function, 
and the only possible way to do this is to find their best selves 
in the doing. Everywhere we hear the cry that the girls no 
longer like housework. Why should they, — we wonder, — when 
the detail of the subject is far behind them in progress? 

It therefore becomes an essential move to bring it up to the 
standard, by proving that all that is worth while in life, may be 
found in the manner of doing. 

To give one's whole self something worth while, in a sense of 
absolute freedom, the way to work, is to make it play, by as- 
sembling all sides of one's make-up. For after all, there is noth- 
ing but work that truly brings joy to the living. To accom- 
plish great deeds, and to grow by the way, is the only permanent 

301 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

pleasure. And as for the lower and higher tasks, there is no 
such thing in conception. It's the way one works, that tells 
the tale of culture and good breeding. To scrub the kettle, or 
pick the rose, is exactly the same in value. The only difference 
is the motive in each, and the perfection with which one does it. 
To gradually work from the cruder way to the finest methods 
of doing, from the low and rough to the middle degree, on up 
to the best operation, is the way to progress and gain as you go, 
in the midst of the Commonest labor. Testing each step in the 
light of the whole, with an Ideal ever before one, making of all 
a science and art, and being the thing that you further. Gather- 
ing information from every source you are able, and working 
with heart and mind to develop that which is started. Feeling 
a close relationship to every kind of home-maker, and helping 
her who would keep the house, to know all parts in the contact. 
Working together at every stage to prove the value of combine. 
Showing the many housekeepers how best to accomplish their 
duties, by bringing forth in abundance, results of personal merit. 
For the truly progressive home is akin to democracy's method, 
and the God of both stirs them each to interpret themselves in 
action. The home and the business of every day, is the religion 
of the future, where no inherited noble birth, or caste, shall 
take possession, but a free, frank public conscience will move 
all things to solution. And the pulling together shall bring 
advance; the kind that has only been dreamed of. Tradition, 
conquest, and bigotry will go back in their holes forever. For 
the home of the new democracy will nourish no one of this triune. 
The public will then unload itself of deceptive, benevolent feudal- 
ism, and guide its citizens on to the goal through playful and 
living enterprise ; we know no factor in education as strong as 
that of amusement. It breathes and bespeaks a friendship for 
all, disregarding the program of conquest. For the flag of 
this wonderful country is a symbol to live, not to die for ; where 
each must be helped to find love and his work, and through these 
will come pleasure and Freedom. Housework, and the homes 
of the future will prove the school for such purpose. And as 
women and men shall make these fine, so both In the nation 
are needed. The new progressive idealism shows Democracy 

302 



HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY 

as a Religion, where men and women guided by God, united, 
shall work for its issues. 



ADDENDA 

A list of some of the efficient machines, devices, and utensils 
tested and approved by the Housekeeping Experiment Station, 
Colonia, N. J. 

Also a partial list of a few superior foods, and other home- 
making essentials. 

Automatic Electric Stove and Fireless Cooker. 

Copeman Electric Stove Company, Flint, Mich. 

Gas Stove and Fireless Cooker Combination. 

Chambers Manufacturing Company, Shelbyville, Ind. 

El Cooko and El Bako. 

Pacific Electric Heating Company, New York City. 
Table Disc Stove. 

Cutler-Hammer Manufacturing Company, 50 Church 
Street, New York City. 

Table Disc. 

Simplex Electric Heating Company, 120 West 32d 
Street, New York City. 

Hughes Electric Plate Stove. 
Chicago, 111. 

Ideal Fireless Cooker. 
Steam Cooker. 

Toledo Steam Cooker Company, Toledo, Ohio. 
Caloric Fireless Cooker. 

Grand Central Palace, New York City. 
Pyro Alcohol Marine Stoves, Alcohol Radiator and Lamps. 

The Alcohol Utilities Company, 40 Exchange Place, 
New York City. 
Small Alcohol Stoves. 

Manning, Bowman & Company, 200 Fifth Avenue, New 
York City, or Meriden, Conn. 
303 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Heat and Odor Extinguisher. (Hood for Stove.) 

Sanitary Homes Company, 275 Morris Ave., Elizabeth, 
N. J. 
Garbage Incinerite. 

American Incinerite Company, 150 W. 22d Street, New 
York City. 
Climax Garbage Burner. 

Long-Landreth Company, New Brunswick, N. J. 

Instantaneous Hot Water Urn. 

Cutler-Hammer Manufacturing Company, 50 Church 
Street, New York City. 

Ruud Hot Water Heater. 

Ruud Manufacturing Company, 81 Fulton St., New 
York City. 
Heller's Improved Hot Water Heater. 

144 Pierpont St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Steiner Family Motor. 

Steiner Manufacturing Company, 14th & Warren Sts., 
St. Louis, Mo. (May be connected with almost any 
device that requires power in operating.) 
Coffee Mill, 
Ice-Cream Freezer, 
Bread and Cake Machine, 
Mangle, 
Grater, 

Meat Chopper, 
Egg Whip, etc. 
Scrubbing, Renovating and Floor Polishing Machine, Rug 
Cleaning. 
Kelly Electric Machine Company, 1407 West Ave., Buf- 
falo, N. Y. 

Floor Polisher. 

Vacuum Sales Company, 251 Fifth Avenue, New York 
City. 
Howard Dustless Duster. 
Boston, Mass. 

304 



HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY 

Imperial Kitchen Elevator and Ice-Box. 

Imperial Manufacturing Company, Williamsport, Pa. 

The Ideal Regitherm. (To regulate furnace temperature.) 

American Radiator Company, 104 W. 42d St., New York 
City. 

The Judd Washing Machine and Mangle. 

The Judd Laundry Company, People's Gas Bldg., Chi- 
cago, 111. 

The Easy. (Hand and electric.) 

Dodge & Zuill, Syracuse, N. Y. 

The Arora Quality. (Hand and electric.) 

The Arora Company, 501 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 

A Small Bath Room Washing Machine. 

The Cunneen Manufacturing Co., White Plains, N. Y. 
Sanitary Toilet Tongs and "All Off" Paper. 

R. H. Macy & Company, New York City. 

The Hessler "Baby Washer." 

H. E. Hessler & Company, Syracuse, N. Y. 

Small Gas Mangle. 

Steiner Manufacturing Company, 14th & Warren Sts., 
St. Louis, Mo. 

A Good Bell Washer for Rinsing, etc. 
From any shop. 

An Adjustable Bell Washer for Sanitary Tub. 
Dodge & Zuill, Syracuse, N. Y. 

Clear White Washer. (Electric.) 
Portable Wringer. 

Steiner Manufacturing Company, 14th & Warren Sts., 
St. Louis, Mo. 
Ever Ready Clothes Line Holder. 

Atwater Specialties Company, 335 Broadway, New York 
City. 
Simplex Electric Iron. 

Simplex Electric Heating Company, 120 W. 32d St., 
New York City. 

305 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Hotpoint Electric Iron. 

Pacific Electric Heating Company, 47 West Street, New 
York City. 

Electric Iron. 

Cutler-Hammer Manufacturing Company, 50 Church 
Street, New York City. 

Vulcan Gas Iron. 

P. S. Gas Company. 

Electro Silver Clean Pan. 

The Frank A. Rolling Company, 255 N. 5th Street, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Chafing Dish. (Electric wire in handle.) 

Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, 
165 Broadway, New York City. 

Table Grill and Griddle. 

General Electric Company, 30 Church Street, New York 
City. 

Waffle Iron. 

Simplex Electric Heating Company, 120 W. 32d Street, 
New York City. 

Cadillac Stove and Toaster. 

Cadillac Manufacturing Company, Cadillac, Mich. 

Nursery Milk Warmer. 

Simplex Electric Heating Company, 120 W. 32d Street, 
New York City. 

Luminous Radiator. 

Pacific Electric Heating Company, New York City. 

Bissell Motor for Sewing Machine. 

F. Bissell Manufacturing Company, Toledo, Ohio. 
Vacuum Cleaner — Hoover, Jr. 

Hoover Suction Sweeper Company, New Berlin, Ohio. 
Bissell Vacuum Cleaner. 

F. Bissell Manufacturing Company, Toledo, Ohio. 

Sweeper Vacuum. 

Boston, Mass. 

306 



HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY 

Duplexo. 

Vacuum Cleaner Company, 1193 Broadway, New York 
City. 

Nevernick Electric Dish Washer. 

Domestic Utilities Company, 145 Broadway, New York 

City. 

"Table Butler." 

McGraw Manufacturing Company, McGraw, N. Y. 
Silver Table Butler. 

International Silver Company, Meriden, Conn. 
"Dumb Butler." (Side table.) 

McGraw Manufacturing Company, McGraw, N. Y. 

"Dumb Butler." (In silver and glass.) 

International Silver Company, Meriden, Conn. 

Paper Napkins and Towels. 

Dennison Manufacturing Company, 5th Ave. & 26th St., 
New York City. 

Paper Plates and Table Cloths. 

Dennison Manufacturing Company, 5th Ave. & 26th St., 
New York City. 

Paper Plates and Parchment Covers. (Separate.) 

Vernon Bros., 66 Duane Street, New York City. 

Paper Towels (roller). Dishcloths, Napkins, etc. 

Scott Paper Company, 7th & Glenwood Avenues, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Paper Bags for Cooking — Soyer Kooker Bag. 

James Spicer & Sons, 50 Upper Thames Street, Lon- 
don, England. 
Ever Ready Nutmeg Grater. 

Hardware Specialty Company, Chicago, 111. 
Roasting Pan. (Cream City.) 

Gender, Paeschke & Frey, Milwaukee, Wis. 
Paper Garbage Bags. 

D. S. Walton & Company, 132 Franklin Street, New 
York City. 

307 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Taylor Fresh Butter Pan. (Needs ample amount fresh rich 
cream. ) 

Taylor Fresh Butter Pan Company, 476 Philadelphia 
Bourse, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Sanitary Crystal Glass Ice-Cream Freezer. 

The Consolidated Manufacturing Company, Hartford, 
Conn. 
Egg and Cream Whip. (Fries.) 

Lewis & Conger, 6th Ave. & 45th St., New York City. 
Fireless Cooker Thermometer. 

O. T. Weidman, 3416 2d Ave., Minneapolis, Minn. 
Thermometers for Ovens, etc. 

Taylor Instrument Company, Rochester, N. Y. 
Christy Kitchen Spatula. 

Christy Knife Company, Fremont, Ohio. 
Thermos Dishes. 

Coston Supply Company, 24 Water Street, New York 
City. 
Thermos Food and Drink Containers. 

Thermos Bottle Company, 210 5th Ave., New York City. 
Dim-a-lite Electric Lamp. 

Attracto Company, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Sectional Kitchen Cabinet. 

Janes & Kirtland Company, 135 W. 44th Street, New 
York City. 
Ice-Cracker. 

Sutherland & Marvin, 41 Cortlandt Street, New York 
City. 
Quaker City Mills. 

A. W. Straub & Company, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Dilver Colander. 

Dilver Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minn. 
Rapid Lemon and Orange Press. 

Whitehall, Tatem & Company, New York City. 
Electric or Hand Bread Machine. 

Sharpless Bread Company, Philadelphia, Pa. 
308 



HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY 

P. M. Self Cooker. 

Phaeler & Company, 2d Ave. & 27th St., New York 
City. 

Simplex Strainer and Seeding Press. 
Simplex Saucepan Supporter. 

The 4 S Food Press Company, 217 Quincy Street, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Wear-Proof Door Mat. 

Wear-Proof Mat Company, 18 E. 17th Street, New York 
City. 

Wilde's Ship Linoleum. 

Joseph Wilde & Company, S66 5th Avenue, New York 
City. 

Paint Used for Interior Work. 

National Lead Company, 111 Broadway, New York City. 

Interior Decorators. (Kitchen specialties.) 

Bowdoin & Manley, 546 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 

Blakeslee Serving Table. 

Blakeslee Manufacturing Company, 4025 Chestnut St., 
Kansas City, Mo. 

The Montclair Refrigerator. 

Montclair Refrigerator Company, Woolworth Bldg., 
New York City. 

Automatic Household Refrigerator. 

Westerberg & Williams, Woolworth Bldg., New York 
City. 

Tahara Automatic Silver Burnishing Machine. 

Tahara Company of America, Glenwood Avenue and 2d 
Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Foods under "Premier" Label — Molasses, Brown Rice, etc. 
Francis H. Leggett & Company, New York City. 

Sylmar Brand Olive Oil. 

Los Angeles Olive Growers' Association, California. 
Acker, Merrall & Condit Company, New York City. 
309 



PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 

Sun Dried Fruits, 

Olive Oil, 

Honey, 

Vegetable Gelatine, etc. 

Otto Cargue, 1605 Magnolia Avenue, Los Angeles, Cal. 
Ripe Olives. 

American Olive Growers' Association, Los Angeles, Cal. 
100 Hudson Street, New York City. 
Grant's Hygienic Crackers. 

Hygienic Health Food Company, Oakland, Cal. 
Acker, Merrall & Condit Company, New York City. 
Knackerbrod. 

F. Kindt Company (Bakery), 1015 Atlantic Avenue, 
Brooklyn. 
Unbleached Nuts. 

L. Biggio, 128 Park Place, New York City. 
Belle Mead Sweets. 

Trenton, N. J. 
Whole Wheat Macaroni. 

P. Daussa & Company, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Unsulphured Molasses. 

Boston Molasses Company, Boston, Mass. 
Raw Peruvian Sugar. 

W. R. Grace & Company, 7 Hanover Square, New York 
City. 

Wheatsworth. 

F. H. Bennett Biscuit Company, 139 Ave. D, New York 
City. 
Cranberries. 

Joseph White Company, New Lisbon, N. J. 
Grape Juice. 

Boericke & Tafel, New York and Philadelphia. 



310 



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